Fabled Freaks
by CrownedOneReborn
Summary: On the night of the summer solstice, the Man in the Moon gave Alice a new life as a Guardian and left her with information that raised questions. Who's Jack Frost? Who are the Balcoin children? And who's responsible for the fire that killed her? Set 8 months after ROTG and before TSC 1x10.
1. Prologue

**A/N: Hello everyone! This is only the second fan fic I have ever written and posted on a site. My writing's rusty, so don't be surprised if this sucks. Originally, I wrote three prologues, but this is the one I am most satisfied with. I have wanted to write fan fiction for _The Secret Circle_ ever since its cancellation (still bitter), but _Rise of the Guardians_ provided me with the inspiration I needed. Enjoy!**

**Prologue**

_June 21, 2013_

_1:04 AM_

Light.

That was the first thing she remembered. It was bright and hot and she was scared. But then, then she saw the moon. It was so big and it dimmed the light and cooled the air. And when it did, she wasn't afraid anymore.

The moon spoke to her and its voice reminded her of a wise old man. _Alice. Alice, Spirit of Summer. The power of this season is yours to command, for the goddess has chosen you to help protect the children of this world, witches and mortals alike. Use it to make sure they will have a safe, fun, and happy summer vacation._

Alice inhaled deeply and nodded her assent, smiling. She examined her surroundings. She was levitating over a boatyard full of dilapidated ships. In the distance, city lights twinkled, dwindling near the coniferous foothills of a snow-capped mountain. Moonlight glinted off a vast ocean bordered by a rocky beach and a harbor.

Slowly, she drifted down, planting her bare feet on the deck of a small steel ship. The cold metal warmed beneath her toes. Out of curiosity, she placed her hand on a rusty wall and its temperature increased as well. Heat. Her body generated extra heat.

What other powers did she have?

She jumped onto the railings. The action required minimal effort and she didn't feel wobbly in the slightest, balancing on the balls of her feet. She gazed down at her reflection in the waves lapping against the hull. Her skin was fair with a peachy undertone and her wavy hair cascaded down the middle of her back in a shower of marigolds. A pair of hazel eyes shifted from brown to green at different angles. She wore beige Capris and an orange camisole with white palm leaves. A fitting ensemble for the Spirit of Summer.

The inky blue water looked refreshingly crisp. Swimming pools and beaches were a major aspect of summer fun. Maybe she should check what she could do in the water… She pushed off from the palings and pulled her knees to her chest to do a cannonball. But she never hit the water. Instead, she was sitting in it as if it were two or three inches deep. Tentatively, she stood. When she didn't go under, she carefully took a couple of steps. Was that all she could do with water? Walk on it like Jesus? She felt a little disappointed.

All of a sudden, she lost her footing and completely sank. She broke the surface and shot up through the clouds, squealing in surprise. Fly?! She could fly?! This meant she could hover! And glide too! That's how she sat and walked on the water!

A tepid wind propelled her sideways, blowing what felt like the breath of a dragon in her face. "Agh! Stop it!" She shouted idiotically at the wind. It calmed down promptly. Did, did the wind just obey her?

"Um, h-hey," she stammered, testing the theory while feeling like an utter moron. "Hey, wind! Take me down, to the docks!" Her stomach plummeted as a southeastern gale forced her descent. She rolled to break the fall and landed on her butt. "Ouch! How 'bout being gentle next time! Gentle!" She shook her fist and then laughed at herself for chastising the _wind._

Leaping to her feet, she brushed off her clothes. No more experimenting with her abilities tonight. She had enough and now wanted to go into the town she'd seen from the sky. She turned to leave the boatyard.

_Wait, Alice._ The moon grunted in discomfort. She stopped short and craned her neck in attentiveness. _Before you go, I have a memory from your earlier life. Rather an image of a boy I am sure you knew. The goddess wants me to give this to you._

Previous life? Her brow creased in mystification. She wasn't anyone before tonight. It was impossible. She was just _born_ forty-five minutes ago. However, she trusted the moon's words inexplicably.

A beam of white light shone on her. She closed her eyes and the memory the moon had promised gradually came into focus, though the background remained blurry. She found herself beguiled by the eyes of a young man: a powdery blue that made her think of frost on a frozen pond. With his pale skin and silvery white hair, he looked like the Spirit of Winter. The mere sight of him made her heart pound, her face flush, and her head woozy. Without thinking, she touched her lips and then stroked her neck and clavicle, tracing the areas where he'd left kisses.

Who was he?

His handsome features exuded defeat, hopelessness, and sorrow. Tears rimmed his eyes and he threw the staff he'd been examining against the wall and yanked the hood of his sweatshirt down, pulling his hair and crying out in frustration. Compassion swelled up inside her and she longed to reach out and comfort him. Abruptly, his head snapped in her direction and a myriad of emotions crossed his face from shock to disbelief and delight to anxiety. Her eyes flew open and the scene vanished. There was no way they'd seen each other; he was just a mental picture.

_His name is Jack Frost._ The moon answered her earlier unspoken question, sounding rather lethargic. _I strongly recommend you seek him out as soon as possible to put his grief and guilt to rest. He has no idea what has become of you and he blames himself. Tell him there was nothing he could have done to put out the fire._

_A fire?!_ Alice wanted to scream out loud. That explained the light, the heat, and the fear she recalled when she first awoke. But she didn't dwell on that for long. She was beginning to worry about the moon.

After a moment, the moon continued, his voice growing weaker and weaker. _There are others with him… friends of yours… who are worried about you. Let them know the Balcoin children are coming…and that Cassie and Diana must leave… while they still have time. _

Alice ran to the farthest reach of the docks until she was standing directly beneath the moon. "Hey, what's wrong? Are you okay?"

_I am sorry…my power is waning... Look for Jack… and your friends… within the Chance Harbor vicinity. Goodbye Alice…Spirit of Summer_. The moon's voice faded with each word.

Alice soared higher than the tree line, apprehension on her face, and extended an arm to the silent moon. What happened? Did he use up all his energy talking to her?

She had a lot of questions. For instance, who was Jack Frost? Obviously, her relationship with him was more than platonic. A blush spread across her cheeks and she shook her head, composing herself. From what she'd gathered, he'd failed to stop a fire that she'd been caught in; the same fire from which the moon raised her. The distraught condition she'd seen him in…She swallowed hard. Perhaps the moon had shown her an actual glimpse of him. And who were the Balcoin children? Were they responsible for the fire?

She wasn't going to find answers here by herself. She tipped her head and looked down on the town. Golden streaks of sand were weaving themselves around the houses, taking on various forms, from dinosaurs and unicorns, and rocking horses and teddy bears as they passed through the windows. None of them gave the impression they were malevolent. A dolphin chirped and did a tail spin before darting past her. She chuckled and followed the sea mammal two and a half miles till it reached the highway and illuminated a sign that read, "Welcome to Chance Harbor Washington". Thankfully, she didn't have far to travel. Alice squared her shoulders and blew air out her nostrils, keeping to the road.

Atop a bluff overlooking Chance Harbor, four teenagers, three boys and one girl, stood motionless on the edge of a forest. The girl's eyes hardened with hatred as she and her siblings watched Sandy bring good dreams to children. Fast as a mongoose, she snatched a sand bunny as it hopped in a loop around her head. The poor creature squirmed and thrashed in fright. Drawing on the moon's power, she wrung its neck with a cruel smile, snuffing out the golden light. She loosened her grip and the bunny collapsed into a pile of black sand at her feet.

* * *

**A/N: Well, what did you guys think?Hopefully, I left my readers in suspense and made them want to come back for more. Review, favorite, follow!**

**Prologue Playlist :**

**Fable (Dream Version)-Robert Miles**

**Deep Shadow-TTL**


	2. Chapter 1

**A/N: Thank you for your lovely reviews folks! I am not entirely satisfied with the dialogue in this chapter. The characters in my earlier stories said very little, so this is my first time writing a scene with more extensive dialogue. I'm praying I did a halfway decent job. Enjoy!**

**Chapter 1**

_6 months earlier_

Alice sat on the sofa in Cassie's living room, channel surfing aimlessly and drinking a glass of eggnog. "They got it all wrong," she scoffed.

"Got what wrong?" Diana asked, popping a piece of cookie dough into her mouth. In the kitchen, Cassie, Diana, Faye, and Jane were baking enough Christmas cookies to last until Easter.

"Jack Frost"– Alice gestured to a boy on-screen who was wearing a blue and white court jester suit– "He does _not _look like that." She'd found Rankin' Bass's_ Jack Frost_ on _ABC Family _and stumbled onto the part where Father Winter agreed to make Jack human to win a girl's affection.

Faye laughed nasally and plopped down next to Alice, hugging flour onto her cheek. "Poor Alice!" She drawled, teasingly sympathetic. "Did you put too much rum in that eggnog?" She snatched it from the coffee table, took a swig, and smacked her lips distastefully. "Or have you been spending way too much time with Jamie?"

"Neither. Rum is too sweet for me," Alice shook off her hold and went back to the kitchen. "And I haven't met your cousin." She sullenly wiped the flour off with an apron. Why did she think she could bring _this_ subject up without ridicule?

"Oh, what does he actually look like?" Diana humored Alice.

"Just forget I said anything," she muttered, shaping two pieces of dough into ropes and twisting them together to form a candy cane.

"No, tell us," Cassie urged Alice after Diana beckoned her. "Don't mind Faye. We want to know."

Alice opened and closed her mouth, unsure where to begin.

"Great!" Faye groaned loudly. "Hey Jane," she called to Cassie's grandma. "Where do you keep your alcohol? And the shot glasses?"

Diana and Cassie both glared disgustedly at Faye. "What?" She asked innocently. "If I'm going to get through the topic of Jack Frost, I gotta be ready."

"Wow, you just can't go one day without being a bitch, can you?" Cassie said sharply.

"Watch who you're calling a bitch, miss drama queen," She sneered, narrowing her eyes. "Jamie hasn't even been here twenty-four hours and it's 'Jack Frost' this, and 'Jack Frost' that'! He's driving me crazy! Try cutting me some slack, will ya?"

"Maybe you should cut _him_ some slack, Faye," Diana suggested tartly. "He's eight-years-old. Let him be a kid for crying out loud!"

"He needs to grow up Diana and realize there's no such thing as Jack Frost!" Faye shouted. Alice detected a hint of bitterness in her tone.

"How can you be so sure?" Diana challenged, raising her voice in return. "Anything is possible since we found out we were witches!"

"Uh, hello! Wake up!" Faye smacked the armrest. "He's a myth! Invented by parents to explain to kids why it snows in the wintertime!" Diana growled in exasperation and slapped a towel down on the counter.

"Girls! Girls!" Jane intervened, standing in-between the adjacent rooms, arms outstretched to quell an oncoming cat-fight "There actually is _some_ level of truth to those stories."

Faye whirled around. "You're not serious!"

Jane winked conspiratorially at Alice. "Cassie, where's the family Book of Shadows?" She put the last batch of cookies in the oven.

"Um, it's upstairs, in my bedroom," Cassie replied slowly and glanced at Diana, who was just as baffled as she was.

"Bring it downstairs, will you please," Jane requested, washing her hands. "One of Amelia's last entries was on Jack Frost."

At the mentioning of her mom, Cassie's interest peaked. "Okay, I'll be right back."

The girls followed Jane into the dining room. She put on a pair of reading glasses and sat down at the head of the table. Alice and Diana sat across from each other, flanking her.

Faye stood in the corner, crossing her ankles. No matter how childish it sounded, she was curious what Cassie's book said about Jack Frost. She was eager to learn everything she could on magic.

A minute later, Cassie ambled into the room, untying the leather belt around her family's Book of Shadows. She handed it to her grandma, who began flipping through the pages. Jane licked her forefinger to turn a page and frowned. "This is the page I was looking for", she sighed, brushing the edges. "But it's stuck to another." The only way to separate them, without causing any damage, was to hold the book over steam. "Give me ten, fifteen minutes." Jane headed back to the kitchen to boil water.

A draft wafted beneath the panes. Alice shuddered and excused herself. She wandered into the living room, picked up the remote, and switched to _The Weather Channel_. A winter storm warning was effect for the Chance Harbor area: one to three inches of snow expected overnight and an extra four to six inches projected for tomorrow. She strolled over to the window and parted the curtains. The sky was clear.

Her thoughts strayed, pondering whether _he_ was coming with the snowfall. _Probably not,_ she mused. In her years of experience, most blizzards were the work of nature.

"You coming, Alice?" Jane snapped her out of the reverie.

"Huh? Oh yeah."

Back in the dining room, Jane smoothed the wedged pages, which were stiff and yellow with old age. The insignias of Hecate–two intersecting torches–and the Man in the Moon–a crescent moon with the face of an elderly man– were sketched in the upper and lower margins, respectively. The section was written in Old English, medieval font.

Alice examined the title. "_Rise of the Guardians_".

"The Fabled Freaks?!" Faye exclaimed.

Diana cocked her head. "I vaguely remember my grandma telling me bedtime stories about them when I was little."

"What's a Guardian?" Cassie's brows knitted.

Jane traced the lines of the first paragraph with her index finger. "From what I can read, it says here that they are spirits of nature or the seasons that protect witch and mortal children."

"Remember the story I told you? The one about the massacre at the Three Rivers?" Alice chimed in.

"Where an army of mortals slaughtered hundreds of innocent witches two thousand years ago?" Diana scooted her chair in.

"That's right."Alice bowed her head. "To prevent another large-scale massacre and to ensure a lasting peace between witches and mortals," she roughly translated. "The goddess of magic and witch queen, Hecate, chooses a witch or mortal. And shortly after death, the Man in the Moon, a loyal servant of Hecate, raises him or her up as a Guardian."

"A Guardian's duty is to spread joy and virtue to the children of the world. Through their work, they show mortal children that true magic is _not_ rooted in evil and act as role models for witch children."

"So…the prospect is… mortals who grow up witnessing the inherently good nature of magic will not become witch hunters? And impressionable witch children will be what they should do with their magic?" Diana cast a furtive glance in Faye's direction.

"Exactly," Jane answered. "Both sides have reasons not to kill each other."

Cassie leaned in, grabbing one side of the book. "I still don't understand. What does this have to do with Jack Frost? Is he a Guardian?"

Jane listed the Guardians as she browsed through the pages. "The Sandman or Sandy for short–"

"Spirit of Night and Guardian of Dreams. A mute. Communicates via images of sand," Faye butted in with supplementary information.

"Tooth, the Tooth Fairy…obviously–"

"Spirit of Wind and Guardian of Memories. Half-hummingbird…or parrot…Has a creepy tooth fetish," Faye licked a molar.

"North, the formal name for Santa Claus–"

"Spirit of Christmas and Guardian of Wonder. Russian. His naughty list is a tattoo on his forearm," Faye scratched her arm uncomfortably.

"I'll bet the elves ran out of ink tattooing your name in," Diana teased.

"Ha, ha, ha!" Faye said dryly. "Zip it, little miss-goody-two-shoes!"

"Ah, here we are, Jack Frost," Jane spoke up. "He's a new Guardian, I assume; I haven't come across him in any other Book of Shadows."

Alice's breath hitched. Her heart throbbed against her chest. Three-hundred years ago, she jotted down a concise description of Jack in this book: his life and death, and his basic powers. She stroked the middle of the page with two fingertips, pretending to smooth a water spot. When she saw the picture on the next page, she averted her eyes and blinked back tear drops.

Faye inched closer to the table and whistled. "Oh, hot damn."

"Oh, hot damn is right," Diana agreed, enunciating the vowels. In a colored pencil drawing, Jack knelt with a snowball in his right hand and a sexy, mischievous smirk on his face. In his left hand, he carried a Sheppard's staff. He looked at least seventeen or eighteen. His skin was pale and he had white hair with silver highlights. Frost clung to his clothes, which consisted of a navy blue hoodie and weathered brown leggings. He wore no shoes. Overall, he was a devilishly handsome Guardian.

_Had Amelia seen Jack when she was younger_, Alice wondered. Her depiction of him? Uncanny (not counting his modern attire). Her account? Comprehensive. She must have.

Cassie squinted. "Did my mom have some sort of crush on him? I mean, look how neat her cursive is, compared to"–she backtracked a couple of pages and pointed to Amelia's handwriting on binding Circles– "here."

Jane chuckled and began chatting about Amelia's encounters with Jack. Alice tuned out most of the conversation. At one point, she picked up a bit where Jane was explaining that Guardians are only visible to children who believe in them, ironically mortals. Throughout the centuries, only a handful of witches reported sightings beyond childhood.

"That's sad," Cassie said, capturing Alice's attention.

"Pardon?"

"Jack died saving Janie, his sister. They were skating on a frozen pond and she glided across a thin patch of ice. He held out a branch–his staff–for her to grab. He'd slide her to safety. But in doing so, he fell through the ice and froze to death–"

_On December 20_, _today_, Alice added tacitly. She didn't want to hear anymore.

Twenty years before, her father, Francis Balcoin, murdered her siblings Emeline, Matthew, and Thomas, her boyfriend Thackeray, and her best friend Susana. By the time she met Jack, her heart had mended. But it was fragile and she'd taken Jack's death very hard. In spite of a healing process that took decades, memories of him and that horrid year-and-a-half that ended in the deaths of her family and friends were painful to reminisce.

Since she woke up this morning, she wanted to talk to a friend about her feelings, which is why she mentioned Jack. She realized, however, she couldn't handle any "get-to-know-me" activities tonight. The anniversary of his passing was emotionally the hardest.

"Hey, I hate to bail on you guys. But there's a snow storm heading this way."

"Really?" Jane glanced out the window over her shoulder. Wispy snowflakes began falling lazily to the ground. "Hmm, glad my hearing's not going. I swore I heard an alarm blaring from the TV. Well then, you'd better head on home before the roads get bad." She closed the book, marking the page.

As soon as Jane was out of earshot, Cassie gave Alice a grimacing smile. "Thanks for your help tonight."

"It was no trouble, Cassie." She said goodbye to Faye and took her coat and scarf off the rack.

"Hey," Diana touched Alice's forearm, worry etched on her face. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?" She grunted, shimmying into her winter boots.

"I don't know, you seemed–" Diana paused, unable to find the right word.

"I'm just nervous for the choir's Christmas concert," Alice dismissed Diana's worries. "My solo is first. What if my voice is off-key?"

Diana wasn't entirely convinced. Alice _did_ get anxious the day before a public performance. But there must be more; all day she noticed an on and off sadness in her friend's eyes. The problem was Alice did not open up to others easily and further distanced herself if she were hassled. She refrained from pressing the issue. To distract Alice from whatever was bothering her, she joked, "Ah, pretend you're drunk. You'll have the perfect excuse."

Alice snickered underneath her scarf. "Good idea! I can sing 'Here Comes Fatty with a Sack of Shit' instead!"

Diana burst out laughing. "Careful or North will put you on the naughty list! But seriously though, you'll be amazing", she smiled reassuringly. "You have a pretty voice."

Alice shrugged, her eyes casting down. _There it is again_, Diana noted inwardly. _That mournful gleam._

An awkward, uncomfortable silence followed seeing that neither of them was sure what to say. Finally, Alice straightened her coat lapels and smiled wryly. "See you tomorrow?"

"Drive safely." Diana briefly watched her go and then closed the door.

Alice fumbled through her purse, searching for her car keys, which were hidden somewhere in a messy pile of gum wrappers, receipts, and tissues. As she unfastened the hasp lock and pushed the gate open, a mellow wind blew strands of hair onto her face, carrying a voice.

_Alice?_ The voice spoke with a trace of hopeful recognition and an underlying elation.

Her breath caught in her throat. That voice. Deep and warm. Seeping into her bones. Flowing in her bloodstream. Chasing away the cold. She'd heard it for eight months. But that was a long, long time ago.

Alice tightened her grip on one of the gate's metal bars and steadily turned in the voice's direction. No one was on the walkway or the porch. Maybe she imagined it– She saw movement in her peripheral vision. On the rooftop, a tall figure crouched beside the cupola. Alice lifted her head and it shied away, disappearing behind a chimney. Seconds later, a head emerged and she saw a flash of silver and the outline of a hoodie.

Alice let out a strangled gasp. She reeled and slammed the gate shut. In her haste, she slid on the freshly fallen snow and instinctively threw her hands forward, smacking the glass of the driver's window. Her keys lay in the cup holder. Quickly, she punched in the key code and just about tumbled into the driver's seat. She jammed the keys into the ignition, started the engine, and wasted no time waiting for the car to warm up.

**A/N: I'm sure I don't need to tell you who the mysterious character is! :D Review! Favorite! Follow!**

** P.S. I'll post Chapter 2 soon and it's going to be long!**


	3. Chapter 2

**A/N: Boy! This chapter was a _pain in the ass_ to write! I spent two and a half weeks writing and editing and deleting scenes that didn't fit. At 5,650 words, this is by far the longest chapter. Enjoy!**

**Chapter 2**

Seven-thirty a.m., a salt truck barreled down Crowhaven Road. Alice stirred restlessly in bed. Last night, she'd driven faster than the speed limit. Not that it mattered. If she'd gotten into a car accident, she might suffer a few cuts or bruises. Or in the worst-case scenario, broken bones or a concussion. Despite this, she chided herself for being reckless. Unlike Faye, she did not risk exposing her status as a witch. An immortal witch who could not be _killed_ to top it off.

Alice didn't sleep well all night. Every time she closed her eyes, visions of dark water and ice haunted her mind. She managed to drift off for only three hours. Even if Chance Harbor high school had a two-hour delay, she figured going back to sleep was a waste of time. The teachers probably had nothing planned since it was the last day before Winter Break. Plenty of time for dozing off in biology or geometry.

She threw off the duvet and sat down on the edge of the bay window, peering outside. The roads were clear and it had stopped snowing. Barely four inches covered the yard. Under these perfect conditions, the superintendent wouldn't call in a snow day.

Alice felt a weight lifting. _He_ never stayed in one place too long. His saying her name was on repeat in her head. Guardians' memories of their human lives were all but lost. How did he remember her now? What was the tooth fairy's name again? Tooth–something–collected baby teeth because they held the most important memories of one's life–

An alarm clock buzzed from her "grandparents'" bedroom. It was eight-fifteen? She'd been gazing idly out the window that long?

"Alice sweetie, are you awake?" Darlene murmured, cracking the door open.

"Yeah, I'm awake. Give me two minutes and I'll be down." Alice picked out a cardigan sweater and boot cut jeans from her closet.

"Okay. What do you want for breakfast?"

"The usual."

"Don't you want blueberry pancakes? Your favorite? I going to make some 'cause I bought four boxes on sale yesterday."

Darlene was a Sanderson, a distant relative from her mom's side of the family, who lived with her husband, Raymond on the outskirts of Chance Harbor. The cover story was Alice's parents were going through a divorce and her mom couldn't financially afford to take care of her. Centuries ago, the Sandersons and the Blakes promised she'd always have a home with them. Alice originally planned to stay with Jane Blake, but Amelia had recently passed away and Cassie had no other family members.

"I'm not that hungry. Just save some for when I get home." Alice went to the bathroom and checked her reflection in the mirror. She ran a comb through her knotted strawberry blond (almost red) hair, rubbed the sand from her languid green eyes, which were bloodshot, and hoped she appeared semi-presentable now.

Darlene laid out a fruit salad of strawberries, grapes, pineapples, and mangoes for Alice and handed her a glass of water. "No thanks, I'd rather have coffee," Alice yawned.

"Coffee? You never drink coffee. It's not good for your vocal cords, you say. " Darlene set the water down on her place mat. She was a thin woman, approximately in her late sixties, with short blond hair graying near the roots and sharp, round cheeks.

"I'm tired, that's all. I didn't get much sleep last night." Alice filled a mug to the brim, and then mixed in French vanilla cream.

"Sweetie, you're not worrying yourself sick about the concert, are you?"

"No… Yes–" Alice covered her face to hide the fact that she was lying. "_Dream a Dream_ is a difficult song and if I'm off-key…Mrs. DeSare won't forgive me…I'll be the butt of everyone's joke over Christmas dinner–"

"How many times do you have to hear people say–?"

"I know," Alice interrupted, her grogginess disguising moroseness. "I have the voice of an angel. And I'm wasting my energy fretting so much."

"Precisely. And I want you to keep repeating that phrase to yourself 'till you start believing it," Darlene said firmly but kindly. "We don't say these nice things 'cause you're family. Mrs. DeSare has high standards. At first, she doubted her decision to let you join the Choir. Didn't think you had any talent. But you were so stubborn and refused to take her advice and quit. And you proved that prima donna wrong. If that's not an indication you can sing, then I don't know what is." Alice smiled wearily at Darlene.

Four years, give or take, and she'd have to leave her adoptive grandma before people began to notice she wasn't aging past eighteen. She'd miss her, Raymond, and the Circle. They accepted her even though she belonged to the infamous Balcoin bloodline, so powerful its members were rumored descendants of Hecate.

Francis Balcoin tainted a beloved witch family's reputation three-hundred twenty years. He was notorious, much like _Lord Voldemort_ from _Harry Potter. _Witches said he was "as evil as they come; he _had _to be stopped. Dark magic had consumed him, destroying the father she loved. He succeeded in convincing a multitude of witches to embrace dark power, which increased the threat of a massacre far worse than the Three River. As a result, Alice handed over her father, along with his followers, to the witch hunters. She taught them the spell to kill witches with dark magic and paid a terrible price. As the witch hunters lit his pyre, Francis cursed his daughter to live forever for her betrayal.

Raymond bounded in through the kitchen door, carrying the morning paper. His peppered hair was windblown and his wide-rimmed glasses were foggy. "Brrr!" He rubbed his hands together, blowing on them. "Jack Frost is nipping at my nose."

Alice choked on her coffee and pounded her chest, sputtering. Raymond rushed over, ready to do the Heimlich maneuver. She fervently shook her head. Once she finished coughing, she knew she ought to leave now or Darlene would grill her for her unusual behavior. "Whoa! How is it ten till nine?" She jumped up from the table, seized her purse from the empty seat next to her, and accidentally spilled coffee on her jeans. She winced as it soaked through the material, scalding her skin.

"Here," Darlene handed her a wet dishtowel. As Alice scrubbed the stains, the caffeine jump-started her brain and she mentally banged her head against the table for that dense reaction to Ray's statement. "Jack Frost nipping at your nose" means it is cold.

"There's a clean pair of sweats hanging in the laundry room," Darlene said, observing her warily.

Alice tugged on the bottom of her shirt. "Eh, hardly noticeable. If I go upstairs and change, I'll be late." She swung her backpack over her shoulder and draped her choir robes over an arm. "Later alligator," Alice hugged Ray sideways. "Later gladiator," he shot back.

"Hang on, you forgot your" – Darlene began, but Alice was out the door by now –"purse".

* * *

The student parking lot was surprisingly jam-packed. The only available space was partly occupied by a mound of dirty snow shoveled haphazardly around a light pole. Alice prayed no reckless drivers would smash into her bumper.

"Alice! Hey!" Melissa shouted ten cars down. Her brown curls bounced as she ran to Alice's side, meeting her halfway. "Hey, can I ask you something?"

"Sure. What is it?" Alice responded cautiously. She assumed Diana or Faye told Melissa about the stuff they'd found in Cassie's Book of Shadows.

"So…as you know…Ms. Harper wants us to spend three-hundred minutes of reading over Winter Break. And we have to write a two to three page summary of each book as proof we read it. I was wondering"– Melissa twiddled her thumbs nervously– "read any good books lately?"

Alice relaxed. "Muh-lissa," she gasped, teasingly astonished. "Are you asking me to do your homework?"

"No," she pouted, feigning hurt. "If I asked you to write my summaries, then you'd be doing my homework for me."

"Just kidding!" Alice slapped her playfully. "I can recommend a few short books that might interest you. _Catcher in the Rye_, _A Separate Peace, Animal Farm_–"

"What's that one about?"

"It's an allegorical novel. A political satire of the Russian Revolution and the Stalin Era…with farm animals."

Melissa wrinkled her nose. "I think I'll pass."

Diana and Faye were standing near a bench chitchatting and joined Alice and Melissa. The schoolyard was enormous. A lone statue of an angler stood in the middle with a contiguous garden.

"Can you believe that _spinster_? Giving us a reading assignment over the holidays?" Faye complained. "Some of us have a _life_, you know?" She leered, adjusting her bra straps.

Diana rolled her eyes, ignoring the innuendo. "Just spend an hour each night and you'll be done in five days."

Faye pursed her lips. "Do you think the _Chance Harbor Daily Times _counts? Or my mom's collection of dirty magazines?"

"I highly doubt"–

Out of nowhere, a snowball hit Diana on the back of the head. "Ah!" She spun around. "Adam!" He was several paces behind them, talking to his best friend, Luke. "It wasn't me! Diana, I swear."

Diana made a jeering gesture. Was this one of Adam's attempts to convince her they should get back together? By reminding her how they officially met?

She was five and her kindergarten teacher had handed out a pop quiz in math. She was sure she'd bombed it and had spent the bus ride home crying. When she got off at her stop, a snowball hit her cheek. One of their dads certainly hadn't thrown it. Adam was the only one who'd gotten off with her. In her situation, she should've cried harder or slugged him. Yet she felt an irresistible urge–regardless of her mood–to start a snowball fight. To have fun. The way she did now.

"Liar!" Diana rolled a fistful of snow into a ball and advanced towards Adam. "Have a snow cone!"

"No! N-no! No thank you!" Adam waved a finger and raised his arm to shield himself from the attack. But he was too slow. Diana splattered snow all over his face. "Merry Christmas!" She smiled brightly. Adam snorted, clearly not amused.

"Need some help, buddy?" Luke grinned mischievously. In a flash, he scooped up some snow and chucked it at Diana.

Luke missed and hit Kyle, the captain of the hockey team, in the mouth before he could lock lips with his girlfriend, Amber.

"Uh-oh!" Luke scrambled out of his gloves to hide the evidence.

Kyle's expression changed from anger to amusement and he laughed raucously. "SNOWBALL FIGHT!" He bellowed.

"Oh shit no!" Faye broke into a run for the front entrance.

Soon afterward, almost every student in the schoolyard was engaged in an extreme snowball fight. Spirits were high. "Go! Go girls!" Diana shoved Alice, Cassie, and Melissa over to a grove of trees, shielding them from the snowball bombardments.

Faye yelped as a barrage of snowballs pounded a stack of textbooks she held up for protection. "Savages!" She screeched at her assailants.

Cassie bolted for her station wagon. "Text me when it's safe," she called.

"You're no fun!" Diana glowered.

Adam and Luke and Kyle and Amber had built forts out of snow along the barren garden and were fighting one another. Diana had a wicked idea and let Alice and Melissa in on her plan. "Are you guys with me?"

Melissa grinned from ear to ear. "I don't hate fun."

Alice didn't answer Diana. Because _he_–Jack Frost–had landed on the pedestal of the angler statue. She stared, all the color draining from her face. _He's still here! Chance Harbor is his "home" for the winter! _That meant he'd be coming back here after he finished work. These thoughts raced through her mind, stifling her hearing. Amber was rapidly making snowballs and Kyle was flinging them like a baseball-pitching machine, battering Adam and Luke's snow fortress. And Jack was cheering the couple on from the sidelines. The world teetered and tottered as if she were on a seesaw.

Diana wrapped her arms around Alice for support. "–say something! I think she's gonna faint"–

Melissa's voice sounded muffled. "–take her to the nurse–"

"I don't need to go to the nurse," Alice said, quivering. "Let me go," she wiggled out of Diana's embrace. "I need to–" She swayed and Melissa caught her.

"No! You're going to the nurse," Diana said sternly.

Alice put her head between her knees and took ten deep breaths. Once the dizziness relatively subsided, she then looked from Diana to Melissa, and then back to Diana. "All right." She zipped past them, kicking up snow and tripping over her feet. She ignored their fuming protests. Feinting to the right, she crouched behind Kyle and Amber, out of Adam and Luke's sight.

What she then did was immature, even for her. She tossed a snowball _hard_. It hit Jack straight in the jaw, knocking him off his perch. He gasped, shaking snow out of his hair. Bewilderment crossed his face.

Alice backed up swiftly, throwing the hood of her coat up to hide her face. She turned as her heels scraped the bottom of the steps. The doors opened and Dawn Chamberlain, the principal of Chance Harbor high school, stepped outside with her daughter Faye in tow. She blew a metal pea whistle and a shrill noise pierced the air. Everyone immediately dropped what he or she was doing.

"That's enough! Everybody inside, now! And detention"–she scanned the campus–"for all participants this afternoon! Two o' clock! The cafeteria! No exceptions!" Principal Chamberlain shouted. Uproars arose from the students.

"Oh come on! It's three days before Christmas! Don't punish them for having fun!" Alice singled out Jack's voice among one hundred sixty-three others.

She twitched as goose bumps formed on her arms. She shuffled into the building, slipping pass Coach Tanner. Despite his average height and lean build, he had an intimidating presence, partly due to the two _Fox 40_ whistles he constantly wore around his neck. He did not take insubordination lightly and threatened to sic his "Kakapos" on anyone who refused to cooperate. Coach Tanner gave his whistles these outrageous nicknames, as the sound they emitted was loud and harsh on the ears. He appeared beside Principal Chamberlain on the stoop and an instantaneous silence ensued.

* * *

A throng of girls moseyed on into the restroom. "Damn it," Alice swore, locking herself in the handicap stall. Faye, Melissa, Diana, or Cassie might be in the crowd. She peeped through the slit and sighed in relief when she recognized nobody. Although she saw these girls five days a week, none of their names or faces registered.

Alice wasn't invisible in the literal sense. Then again, she might as well be. Seven hours a day in school, she kept a minimal profile. After Jack's death, she never allowed herself to establish a close relationship with anyone to safeguard against heartbreak. She was constantly moving from town to town. Not to mention, people grew old and died eventually.

On the other hand, she made an exception with her grandparents and the Circle. Three centuries of loneliness, because of self-imposed isolation, had taken its toll on her. She would not be fine when the inevitable comes to pass. But she' get better someday.

The bell rang and the girls jostled to home room. Alice came out of her hiding place, listening intently for approaching footsteps. Her shoulder felt alarmingly lightweight. _Double damn!_ She'd left her purse home by mistake. Hardly any paper towels were in the holder. She tore off the last roll and turned on the faucet. Gripping the corner of the sink bowl, she dabbed her forehead repeatedly.

Slight tremors racked her arms and legs and she whispered a spell to ease her trembling. Diana and Melissa were not going to be happy with her. She admitted her actions were rude: running off after she said she'd go to the nurse with them. Diana was the closest thing she had to a sister and Melissa, Cassie, Adam, Nick, even Faye were her friends. What did she hope to accomplish with that stunt? That surefire way to attract his unwanted attention? Send Jack the message he wasn't welcome here?

Alice owed them an explanation for why she'd been acting strange. Automatically, she built a wall around the memories of her past life. But with great effort, she left a hole in her defenses, wide enough to allow the basic details to escape. She hated the vulnerability the gap created. But that was the price to salvage her friendships with Diana and Melissa.

Tipping her chin with resolve, she dashed out of the ladies' room. Would she ever find someone who would tear down this wall entirely?

* * *

Presents cluttered Mr. Gallagher's desk and he mumbled under his breath, "What do these kids think I am? A _Princeton _professor? They don't pay me enough to afford a bigger car." He laid down an oversized gift bag and caught Alice breezing through the doorway, missing the tardy bell by a millisecond.

"Miss Sanderson! There you are! I was afraid I'd have to write you a"–His mouth puckered in annoyance –"tardy slip." Piles of wrapped boxes were blocking the drawers.

She took her seat in the front row, nearest to the teacher. "Sorry. I was...Um…I was…"

A female student cleared her throat. Diana sat in the desk on Alice's left. She drummed her nails against the counter-top Adam and Luke were nowhere in sight. From the back of the room, Faye gave Alice a fleeting look of pity and then buried her head in the crook of her elbow. Melissa set her mouth in a taut line and crossed her arms, refusing to acknowledge Alice. Cassie tapped her forehead with a pencil, staring pensively at a paper mache snowflake pinned to the chalkboard frame.

She shouldn't reveal any tear-jerking memories here with an audience. "Mr. Gallagher?" She raised her hand timidly and said in a small voice, "Can I go to the nurse? I don't feel well. That's why I almost came in late." She wished she didn't have to ask to visit the nurse. But she had no choice. Noise from the restrooms carried through the ceiling vents in the classroom.

Diana gritted her teeth and huffed as if she wanted to smack Alice. Melissa eyes widened. "Are you kidding me?" She breathed angrily.

Mr. Gallagher bit on a pen cap contemplatively. "I don't see why not. You won't miss anything." In that moment, Alice was relieved she didn't have her purse, where she had stashed his gift: a cheap Santa Claus ornament from _Dollar General_. Otherwise, the "Finicky Fiend" might have argued she didn't look sick.

"I think I'd better go with her," Cassie volunteered. "To make sure she gets there safely." Her blue eyes were full of leniency. "She almost passed out on her way to class."

Alice blinked, startled by Cassie's proposal. Her original plan backfired. Perhaps for the best. Melissa adopted a don't-bother-me façade. Diana straightened her posture and opened her pre-Calculus textbook. She frantically scribbled on a sheet of loose leaf, channeling her emotions into solving difficult problems. Out of the six members of the Circle, Cassie accepted new information with a more open mind.

Mr. Gallagher raised his hands in surrender. "All right, Cassie. But I expect _you _back here after the nurse finishes her assessment," he warned, handing her the hall pass.

Cassie smiled politely. "Yes, sir." Putting her hand between Alice's shoulder blades, she guided her out into the hallway.

Sweat beaded Alice's forehead. Her reflection in the trophy cases showed a student with a sickly pallor. Cassie patted her back. "It's okay, Alice. I'm not gonna chew you out."

_Chew me out?_ That was the least of her worries.

At the hallway junction, Alice stiffened near the row of lockers occupied by herself and the Circle. "Wait–" She said hesitantly, stopping Cassie in her tracks. "There's something… I have to tell you…right now–" Her pulse hammered in both ears.

Cassie sensed the tension radiating from Alice. "Don't force yourself to say anything that makes you uncomfortable."

Alice's throat constricted. She whipped her head from side-to-side to check if she and Cassie were alone. Unenthusiastic chatter drifted through the plastered walls. With more than half the school assigned detention, its students knew not to get caught loitering in the halls. All but two of them.

She inhaled shakily and mustered all her willpower. "You wanna know why I'm acting weird? I've seen him, Cassie. Twice. He's here…in Chance Harbor… for the winter–" She choked, her words barely audible. "I–I might not see him during the day…he-he's got a lot of work to do–"

"He? You mean Jack Frost?" Cassie said bluntly.

Alice gawked. "H-how did you know?"

"It was all a matter of fitting the pieces together I guess. Yesterday, you looked the way I did when I lost my mom. Like you lost someone close to you. Diana came to me after you left. I figured it out when she said you couldn't look at my mom's illustration of Jack Frost."

Alice pressed her back against the lockers. "Diana doesn't believe in him. If she did, she would have seen the connection."

Cassie shook her head. "No, she's not a believer."

"Are you?"

"Before I found out I was a witch, I would've said, 'You're insane'."

Alice eyed her curiously. "You're convinced that the stories you heard as a child are real? Just like _that_?"

"My whole world turned upside-down when Faye broke the news to me that I'm a 'full-blooded, hundred percent witch'. What I thought _couldn't_ exist no longer applies. Soooo…I'm gonna trust _your _word that Jack Frost is somebody."

"How do you trust me?"

Cassie placed a hand on her wrist. "I just do. Maybe it's 'cause of your age. Or maybe it's 'cause I'm your friend. I can't explain it."

"But I haven't been specific about the details of my past. Adam doesn't know if he trusts me." Alice scrutinized Cassie's reaction, testing his level of influence on her.

Since Cassie's arrival in Chance Harbor, she and Adam were drawn to each other. Ethan–Adam's alcoholic father– drunkenly rambled on how the Conants and the Blakes are "written in the stars". Adam and Cassie were "destined" for each other, the same as it was for Amelia and him.

_Pfft!_ If that were true, why wasn't a Conant and Blake ship endgame? This written in the stars mumbo-jumbo wrecked relationships. Diana recently broke up with Adam after three years of dating. He'd shown little to no self-control around Cassie. At Jake's _wake_, he'd acted like a douche bag by picking a fight with the dead guy's older brother Nick, who'd lately shown interest in his _not _girlfriend. His excuse was pathetic: he cannot help how he _feels_. But he can help how he _acts_.

Cassie's face reddened and she tucked a lock of blond hair behind her ears. "Your facial expressions speak volumes; I can see the memories are awful. Adam hasn't experienced loss. He just …doesn't understand it's not that simple being straightforward."

"Maybe someday I'll find the strength to tell you my story explicitly. But for now–" Alice slid to the floor, crossing her legs Indian style. "I thought Diana would believe me," she said, changing the subject. "I mean, she _stuck up _for me in front of Faye."

"She was being a good friend," Cassie knelt beside her. "But she and Faye are on the same page… Though her approach wasn't as bitchy as Faye's. In her family, Jack Frost was _just _a scare tactic to encourage responsible behavior during the winter months. Her grandma feed her images of a quote selfish, irresponsible hellion unquote."

"That image is a lie passed down by witch hunters and accepted by witches who thought the Guardians weren't doing their jobs." A sudden urge to defend Jack's character found its way around her wall. "The Jack I know is gentle, caring, and f–" She said heatedly and then trailed off, covering her mouth. A wave of despair and anguish overtook her. She sobbed, shedding all the tears she'd been suppressing up till now.

"Come here. Come here." Cassie pulled Alice in for a tight hug, rocking her back and forth. "Why is he upsetting you so much? Tell me. Please." She rubbed her forearms soothingly.

"Isn't it obvious?" Alice blubbered. "He died… I cared for him very much." She shut her eyes forcefully as the memory of Janie's wailing flooded the recesses of her mind.

"But Jack came back to life. He never left you. Not for long anyway," Cassie counteracted softly.

"But he did. The goddess chose him."

Cassie understood the insinuation. "He does have a responsibility to protect children. But Alice"–She pulled back, looking her straight in the eyes– "Jack is _here_. My mom _isn't_. I'd give anything to _see _and _touch _her again. Even if it were temporary. Even though it would hurt me when she left. I miss her _that _much." Her voice was suddenly wistful.

"What I'm saying is to try to spend as much time with him while he's here. Don't let this chance pass you by."

Alice stared pass Cassie, considering her words. If she spent time with Jack, she'd never want him to leave Chance Harbor and he couldn't stick around. It was selfish and for this reason, she had no desire to see him. But he probably wanted to see her. If he remembered her from his human life– with Tooth's help– that meant she was an important memory. Her heart fluttered. She was _that _special to him?

A tree sapling of yearning grew inside her. A bunch of weeds tried in vain to ensnare the seedling; the tree got bigger and bigger, towering above the cluster of wild plants. Without a doubt, she _could not_ let this chance pass her by. She did miss Jack that_ much_.

Alice sniffled and wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her sweater. "You're right. That's what I should have done. What I _will_ do." Articulating her decision felt cathartic. She felt better, as if the events of the last thirty-one hours hadn't happened.

"That's all that matters," Cassie said gravely. "What you choose to do now." There was envy in her voice.

Alice nodded faintly. "You know," she said for Cassie's benefit. "In the old days on All Hallows Eve witches visited places that held significance for their deceased loved ones. On that night, spirits who have crossed over are free to return to earth." All except for her family and friends. Her father barred them from visiting her. It was her turn to feel a pang of jealously.

Cassie eyes brightened with reserved hope. "Oh my God–No… I…That isn't… How do you…Have you ever–?"

Alice pointed to herself. "Me? See a ghost? Yeah. I was born in Vermont. Each year my family and I hiked to my ancestors' favorite site in the woods. With a wife and four kids to provide for, my father wanted to go into the copper business. In those days, copper was in great coppers made the crates and barrels for ships, so my father moved us to the Massachusetts coast. I was eight. While living in Salem, we had to be extra careful talking to ghosts. Our 'holy than thou' neighbors were always on the lookout for witches."

Cassie squirmed eagerly. "Ugh! I have gotta visit Burgess, Pennsylvania the weekend of next Halloween–" She ran her fingers down her face and laughed disdainfully. "I–I'm sorry. I'm being insensitive–Wait a minute!" She snapped her head in Alice's direction, stunned. "You just said–Is this where–?"

"No, that little tidbit happened _before_ my life got so effed up. I guess I'm so used to being close-mouthed that I've forgotten it doesn't hurt to talk about my childhood." She examined a scar on her knuckle from when her mother taught her to sew. It was her turn to be jealous now. Her loved ones weren't earthbound, but they never come back.

"Will your grandma let you go all the way to Burgess?" Five minutes ago, Alice would've flinched at the town name. "It's roughly a three-thousand mile drive."

"On my way here I drove that far. She hated the idea of me being alone on the road. And for good reason. Not that I had a choice. But if I had a travel buddy who's been everywhere–" She looked meaningfully at Alice.

She smiled crookedly. "Well… I suppose I could come with you. I haven't been to Pennsylvania since the first Groundhog Day celebrations–oof!" Cassie enveloped her in a bear hug. "Thank you so much! You don't know how much this means to me! Will you promise to tell me more stories from your childhood on the trip?"

A door slammed and Alice scrambled to her feet before someone, specifically from the choir, tattled to Mr. Gallagher. Cassie's hands hovered over her. "Do you still want to go to the nurse?"

Alice counted the hours before the concert and her belly hurt from the rush of anxiety. "Let's see if she has anything for these butterflies in my stomach."

"Stage-fright, huh?"

"Ugh, you betcha," Alice clutched her abdomen.

Kyle came out of the nurse's office. "Hey Kyle," Cassie said causally.

"What do you want?" He groaned and lifted an ice pack from his face. Alice winced. "That looks sore." The length of his cheekbone was scratched and bruised.

His face registered surprise when Alice spoke to him. "Well, this is highly unusual."

"How did that happen?" She asked, concerned.

"You mean this?" He displayed his injury with mock pride. "Emo boy's friend threw a snowball with a rock in it, the asshole." He slapped the ice back on and cursed as a stinging pain lanced his cheek.

"Luke?" Cassie said in disbelief. "No, it couldn't have been him."

"You're absolutely right. He was only like–what–three feet in front of me. It was impossible to tell if that guy with the _butt-chin_ hurled the snowball," he said in a snarky tone. "I know it was Luke. Trust me."

"That's not what I meant! I meant Luke wouldn't do something like that. Yes, he's a jock. But he's not _that_ competitive enough to play dirty." Cassie gave Alice a worried look, who shrugged in confusion. She personally didn't know Luke to give much insight. Kyle _had_ shown no mercy during the snowball fight. "Sometimes people do stupid things out of desperation when they feel overwhelmed," Alice commented. "But we won't know unless we talk to him."

"Do you know where he is now?" Cassie asked Kyle. "He wasn't in class."

He jabbed a thumb in the library's direction. "In detention with Conant. The principal caught him in the act before she blew the whistle. That gave her enough incentive to stop the snowball fight. And now he has to sit in the library under Coach Tanner's supervision till the end of the day." His expression grew obnoxiously smug. "Serves him right for messing with _me_."

_Oh, he thinks _he's _the champion of snowball fighting? _Alice had developed her own technique for wiping the smirks off the faces of hot shots. She eyeballed the frost decorations on the door frame of the nurse's office, which resembled ferns. "That _was_ impressive…you never missed your target…Jack Frost taught you well," she blurted out, unexpectedly.

Kyle's mouth curled. "Um…thanks...Whatever you say… Waiting room's empty. The nurse will probably take you in right away. I…uh… gotta get going." He jogged in the opposite direction. "Gotta watch out for those loner types," he griped to himself, bearing in mind that flicker of contempt on Luke's face.

**A/N: Hmm, Luke is acting rather odd, isn't he? Chapter 4 will explain everything. **

**Review, favorite, follow!**


	4. Chapter 3

**A/N: Hello again, guys! This is my first attempt to write a flashback and I'm not sure I did that well. Its purpose is to show how Alice and Jack met. Enjoy!**

**Chapter 3**

Nurse Rutherford took Alice's vital signs and confirmed they were stable, aside from a rapid pulse. The nurse brewed a cup of chamomile tea with lemon for Alice. She sipped the hot beverage and felt groggy when half of it was gone. Insisting a desk was an uncomfortable place to sleep, Nurse Rutherford led her to the private rest area. Cassie wished Alice good luck and made her way back to class. Alice curled in a ball on the bed and fell asleep.

Thirty-five minutes to one, Nurse Rutherford lightly shook Alice awake. "Honey? I have to close the office now for Winter Break. Are you well enough to sit up?"

_Crap!_ She had ten minutes to change her clothes and meet the choir backstage. Mrs. DeSare had a strict policy on early arrivals. Alice swung her legs over the side. "I have to be. Or Mrs. DeSare will lecture me on punctuality!"

She raced across the grounds in her wrinkled robes and blasted through the doors of the auditorium's dressing room with only fifty-five seconds to spare.

Mrs. DeSare greeted Alice formally and her tensed jaw visibly relaxed. The music teacher asked the singers to do the "I-am-slowly-going-crazy" warm-up for the remaining twenty-five minutes. The chorus sang the five-word phrase while leaning on their elbows, palms under chins. On Mrs. DeSare's cue, they switched elbows and began singing the line in reverse, gradually increasing their vocal range.

Alice felt self-conscious as her voice reached the higher notes. "_Molto bella!_" Mrs. DeSare praised her in an Italian accent.

Alice was met with piercing glares of jealousy and grumbles of "teacher's pet". The musical group dispersed into groups of four and five. She heard some of them whispering spiteful remarks.

"I swear to God that girl's voice is not human!"

"Do you think the bitch-whore lip-syncs?"

"Duh! No seventeen-year-old sounds that good!"

She grabbed a plastic cup, filling it with lukewarm water from a filter jug, and gulped it down. _I only dreamt someone called me a bitch-whore. _She repeated this mantra to try to ease the sting of insults.

Mrs. DeSare ushered the choir onto the stage hurriedly. The twenty-four members took their places on three platforms, arranged like an inverted pyramid. Alice stood alone on the floorboards. The audience paid more attention to the one in this spot.

The chamomile tea was out of Alice's system and she chewed on her lower lip. She could already feel the hundreds of eyes that would be on her. At what point did she no longer enjoy sharing her voice with others? Singing was her passion. That's why she signed up for the choir. She dug deeper to find the root of her anxiety. Darlene assumed it was low self-esteem. In truth, it was she placed limits on her social interactions. Some people might want to get to know her once they heard her sing.

She'd cross the largest boundary she'd set for herself: building a life in Chance Harbor. And she was going to hurtle over another when she next saw Jack. What the hell? Why not break a third and conquer this phobia? Starting tomorrow, she'd practice in front of the Circle and her grandparents till she overcame this irrational fear. In the meantime, she needed an escape. An escape to another period.

The curtains swung open. "Turn back my sights to distant nights," Alice whispered, clasping her hands to her breast.

* * *

_Burgess, Pennsylvania, April 11_,_1713_

The redolence of body odor pervaded the air. Alice forced herself not to gag. Coming from an era of good personal hygiene, the stench offended her nose. The spell she'd been working on for months worked. She was literally seeing (and _smelling) _a memory through her past self's eyes.

She wore a plain dress, dyed sky blue, which reached her ankles. Her hair was braided to the side and she got a whiff of lavender and sage. Unlike mortals of the eighteenth century, witches bathed more often and added herbs or flowers to the tub water.

She stood on a dais, overlooking a crowded and dimly lit room. Tobacco smoke climbed the rafters. Roughly, a dozen table and chairs adjoined a bar counter perpendicular to the pulpit. Seated was a bunch of men, the majority either drunk or bored. A middle-aged man with bald patches and half his teeth missing flirted with her, tootling suggestively. Overhead hung a deer antler chandelier, its candle nozzles uneven and grey with ash. In the reception area, a woman stoked a dying fireplace. Her apron was black with soot and the sour expression on her face would turn away even an outgoing person.

_Burgess Inn and Tavern. Five days before Easter._

Salem's witch families fled after the trials ended. For twenty years, Alice lived with the Blakes throughout the northeastern forests, waiting for the hysteria to die off. That was a dark time in her life. The loss of her home, her siblings, her best friend, and her lover left a void. She fell into a depression as deep as an ocean trench. Insomnia kept her awake and she lost her appetite. If it weren't for the curse, she might have died from sleep deprivation or starvation. On the fifth night of restlessness, she'd reached the REM stage of sleep within minutes as if she were narcoleptic. Likewise, she'd have hunger pains that were impossible to discount. She could never estimate how long she'd been in this state; days and nights were indistinguishable. Somewhere along the way, the simple task of living wasn't as complex anymore.

During a hunting trip, Amity and Hiram Blake stumbled upon a Pennsylvanian town called Burgess. Apparently, this settlement was a refuge for witches. Its residents were not Puritans who adhered to strict behavioral codes. Thus, witches could practice freely in the absence of watchful neighbors. There was a glimmer of hope for Alice. One of Burgess's Circles might be able to help them break her curse.

Alice relocated to Burgess with Amity and Hiram. They stayed in the inn until their house was built. In the evening, singers, musicians, and storytellers entertained the guests. The day after their arrival, Hiram asked the owners' permission to play the accordion while his wife played the fiddle and his "daughter" sang. Alice protested, insisting her skills were rusty. But Amity contended singing is beneficial for mental health. Not to mention they'd make a great first impression on the townsfolk. Alice couldn't argue with latter. She wanted their transition to Burgess to be as smooth as possible. As for the former, she'd been thinking how to pay a tribute to her deceased loved ones, excluding her father, who urged her to become a singer.

She had agreed on the condition she be given four days to prepare. Just as she'd predicted, her singing voice was hoarse from disuse and someone angrily pounded on the wall, yelling at her to pipe down. After that embarrassing incident, she magically soundproofed the walls.

The memory she had chosen to glimpse was the night of the recital.

Rather shyly, she fixed her hooded lids on the staircase. There was a teenage boy on the landing and a little girl peeping through the balustrade. The boy smiled a smile that reached his eyes in an encouraging manner. His name was Jack Burgess. Also known as Jack Frost in human form. His hair and his eyes were brown, flecked with amber in the firelight. He wore a long-sleeved wool shirt with a leather vest and the pants he would never trade in.

Hiram tapped his foot impatiently, diverting Alice's attention away from Jack. Amity positioned the fiddle below her chin and began playing. However, the notes were from the introduction to _Pavane_ by Fauré in F-sharp minor. The music came from the orchestra pit. In the present. Focusing on a wooden plank, she dropped her hands and sang _Dream a Dream_ in a lyric soprano's timbre.

_When the night is still_

_And the sea is calm_

_Lonely shadow, you fall upon me_

_Lay by my side_

_Fear not tonight_

_ Lonely shadow, you'll find a new light_

_Dream a Dream_

_And see through angels' eyes_

_A place where we can fly away_

_Ride with me upon a shining star_

_Above the moonlit sky_

_We will find Elysium_

Women were sitting on rocking chairs in the corner, cradling fussy children in their arms. Alice dedicated the following verse to them.

_Hear the nightingale_

_Sing a lullaby_

_Lonely shadow, you'll find a new light_

_Dawn will be kind_

_All will be bright_

_Lonely shadow, rise from the darkness_

_Dream a Dream_

_And see through angels' eyes_

_A place where we can fly away_

_Ride with me upon a shining star _

_Above the moonlit sky once more_

_We'll dream a dream_

_And see through angels' eyes_

_A place where we can fly away_

_We'll dream a dream_

_And see through angels' eyes_

She breathed through her diaphragm and her voice soared to high D on "Elysium". She repeated the final lyric twice, her pitch lowering to middle C, and waited for the music to fade. Amity and Hiram had finished their piece altogether and the audience applauded, neither energetically nor apathetically.

Alice heard enthusiastic clapping from the top of the stairs. Jack was leaning far over the banister. In a flash, he leapt onto the railing and his arms flailed. Janie squealed in fright and Alice nearly ran off the stage to catch his fall, but "Nimble Jack" righted his balance straightaway, his hand curving around the turned timber finial. "Bravo! Bravo! You have a pretty voice!" He shouted for all to hear.

"JACK! GET DOWN FROM THERE!" Mrs. Burgess, the woman with the sour expression, scolded. "You can't have fun all the time! I thought you agreed to start acting like an unselfish, responsible adult!" He hung his head either in shame or in humiliation and let his sister pull him over the handrail.

Alice could never understand how this woman was the mother of a fun-loving person like Jack. Later that night, she congratulated them on a job well done and asked mundane questions such as where they were from. She had that contemplative look in her eyes. Determining no doubt if Alice would be a bad influence on her son.

She heard thunderous applause from outside the illusion and reversed the spell. "No more gazing across the years."

Strobe lights blinded her and she was back in her robes. Her eyes adjusted to many students, faculty, and staff gave her a standing ovation. Raymond whistled shrilly and Darlene cheered from the front row. From the right side of the stage, Mrs. DeSare signaled to take her bow.

Alice stepped to the center of the stage, slightly dazed by the positive reception. As she curtsied, she spotted Cassie, Faye, and Adam in the row behind Darlene and Raymond. Diana and Melissa hadn't shown up. Something was wrong. The Circle always sat together. She didn't want to jump to conclusions. There were plenty of other explanations for their absence. Cassie seemed to read her mind. Her mouth crumpled in sorrow and that was all the confirmation Alice needed.

* * *

Alice lay on her bed trying to call Diana and Melissa, but it kept going to voicemail. She each left them a message, pleading for a callback. Her phone vibrated on an incoming text message and she checked the notification. Anticipation and dread coursing through her body. Her face fell. It was Cassie asking her if she wanted to come over after dinner. Diana and Melissa were officially ignoring her. They always had their phones on them in case the Circle was in trouble.

What should she do? She had another option: drop by their houses. But if they weren't speaking to her, their parents would answer the door and give her the old "too tired", "too busy" or "not here" excuses.

Alice smothered her face with a pillow and punched it, grunting in frustration. One-hundred and sixty characters of cussing her out would've been better than refusing to talk.

She heard scraping outside her window and did a double take. A female Northern Cardinal tilted her head sideways, curious. "Where did you come from?" Alice thought aloud. Northern Cardinals weren't native to the Pacific Northwest.

The cardinal tapped on the glass and raked her claws on the molding. This was not normal behavior for a bird. As a precaution, she concentrated on the cardinal. When she sensed no magical energy radiating from the bird, she saw no harm in letting her in; sometimes animals behaved mysteriously. The cardinal perhaps sensed her aggravation and wanted to console her.

"Lock unlock," she said and the latches clicked. Out of habit, she tiptoed to the window not to scare the bird and pushed the window open a smidge. Wrapping a blanket around herself, she sat down on the bay window, tucking her knees in.

"So what are you doing in Washington State?" Alice asked rhetorically. "I don't have any birdseed," she said, motioning to the Spartan furniture. The cardinal hopped onto the cushions and held up a winterberry with her beak, which she dropped mechanically. Alice caught it in her palm reflexively.

The bird chirped persistently at her. "Oh… for me?" She bit into the fruit. It was frozen, and she swished it around in her mouth vigorously. Once it thawed out, the berry was sweet and juicy. "Mmm…this tastes good. Thank you."

The cardinal bobbed her head as if to say, "You're welcome" and then tweeted excitedly at the approaching flutter of wings. A brilliant red male cardinal, presumably her mate, landed on the windowsill with a plump winterberry stuck between the tips of his beak and the female joined him. Their beaks clicked as he fed her the berry and Alice smiled fondly at the romantic exchange.

She pushed the window open further and noticed a cluster of berries for the first time. One…two…three…four…twelve…She counted twelve winterberries. The cardinal mates' took turns simultaneously piling them in the grooves of the window. Twelve berries… twelve…

In Western culture, the northern cardinal was associated with Christmas and good luck because their eggs hatch in _twelve_ days. Twelve was the second luckiest number behind seven. How many days of Christmas? Twelve. How many months in a year? Twelve. A folkloric belief stated that if a northern cardinal visited one's home, that person should expect a change for the better in twelve seconds, minutes, hours, days, or months.

The pipes rattled as the furnace kicked on. Alice scooped up the berries and then shooed the cardinals away. "Get outta here! Go!" She closed and locked the windows and the cardinals squawked indignantly. In one swift motion, she pulled the blinds. _A change for the better? Yeah, right. And stepping on a crack will break your mother's back._

**A/N: Review, Favorite, Follow!**


	5. Chapter 4

**A/N: Warning: Mild smut at the end of this chapter. Enjoy! Hahaha!**

**Chapter 4 **

Luke's eyelids felt heavy. He opened them weakly, his vision hazy with stars. What happened? The last thing he remembered was a man's reflection in the back seat of his car and a blow to the back of his head. A golden light tinged with varying shades of orange, pink, and violet blazed the corners of his eyes. The sun was setting. He'd blacked out for three and a half hours?!

Luke tried to lift his head. His neck was stiff from laying on it funny and the back of his head throbbed. Groaning, he pressed his cheek into a grating carpet.

A fan blew air in his face and he inhaled the putrid scent of heated dust and hair. Unexpectedly, his body jerked up and down and then sideways. The movement seemed to jolt his senses. He was on the floor in the back of a car. The smell of rowan tree ash filled his nostrils. Check that, a witch hunter's car.

"Look who finally woke up," a man announced from the driver's seat. Luke lied still, unyielding. The voice belonged to Ethan, one of Isaac's lackeys. Black stubs of hair were starting to appear on his bald head and he had let the piercing in his lip close up. Underneath his earlobe was a tattoo of an arrow with an inverted 'S' for the fletching and a vertical line down the middle of the shaft: the symbol of the American division of witch hunters.

"Ethan, what are you doing?" Luke said feebly.

"I saw you fail to weaken a Guardian. Isaac will want to hear all about this."

When Luke heard they were going to see Isaac, he wished he were still unconscious. "It wasn't my fault! I almost had the winter demon! If it weren't for that–"

"'Almost' isn't good enough!" Ethan heckled, pounding on the steering wheel. "You failed to complete the mission!"

"You don't understand! Alice threw a snowball–" Ethan swerved, taking a sharp turn. "Save your excuses for Isaac. We're almost there."

Luke was jolted backwards, bumping his head against the car door panel. "You can't kidnap me!" He whimpered from the newfound pain. "My parents have probably called the police 'cause I never came home from school!"

Ethan laughed heartlessly. "You wouldn't have come willing. Isaac scares you. Don't worry; your parents know where you're at. You'll be back in time for mommy to tuck you in," he said condescendingly.

"Where's–" Luke began, but shut his mouth not to further antagonize him. He wiggled his behind and the back pocket of his jeans felt strangely flat. Ethan had taken his phone like any smart kidnapper. Even if he had his cell on him, the battery had been ready to die, so any hope of the authorities tracking it was lost.

The car slowed down and turned onto a road that desperately needed paving. He had no idea where Ethan had brought him. Isaac was the leader of the witch hunters in the western United States and had dozens of "camps" scattered along the coast, and across the mountains and the plains. No sooner had his band of witch hunters and he arrived in Chance Harbor last October were they forced to move on. Their psychic honed in on the energy of three powerful witches whose magic was impervious to the protective agents of the rowan tree. Killing them and their Circles was an attempt that was sure to end badly for them.

Speckles of light danced on the leather upholstery as the car came to a stop beneath the shade of a tree blowing in the wind. Ethan turned off the engine and got out, hauling Luke to his feet and his head spun as if he'd ridden a roller coaster. He reached out to balance himself on the nearby fence, but couldn't move his hands more than seven inches apart. He looked down and saw that his wrists bound in iron.

He was able to pinpoint his location right away: Moses Lake, Washington, two-hundred, sixty miles from Chance Harbor. He and his family vacationed here in the summertime. The landscape classified as a desert with a warm, dry climate. He had no time to admire the stunning view of the lake with its foamy indigo waves crashing on the shore of a pebbled beach surrounded by locust trees. Ethan yanked on the chain linking his shackles and led him up a graveled pathway. Luke stumbled over potholes in the gravel pathway and Ethan tugged him along impatiently. "Hurry up, boy! Isaac doesn't like to wait!"

At the crest of the hill stood a row of redwood log cabins, their roofs slanting in a pentagonal shape. Rowan ash encircled the perimeter and black BMW's were parked on the fringes.

They entered the only cabin outside the periphery, furnished with the necessities: four beds, one couch, two easy chairs, a coffee table, and a table and chairs. The fluorescent lights casted a dull, lifeless glow. Luke took notice of the lack of personal items. Bundles of sturdy rope and iron shackles hung on the coat racks and a knive assortment clung to a magnetic rack wall. A range of vials cluttered the shelves and a tangle of plants Luke couldn't name or had never seen grew on the windowsills and in the corners.

A woman with curly black hair and sunken hazel eyes sat immobile as a mannequin at the table, her hands resting on her knees. She stared blankly ahead and Luke had an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach because she didn't blink, not even once. Then he remembered that she was Isaac's psychic, whose name he'd forgotten. Currently, she was scrying for a being's energy.

A tall blond guy with broad shoulders and classically handsome features snipped the dead branches off a plant resembling an asparagus fern. "Ethan, welcome back," he greeted, bowing his head respectfully.

Ethan nodded courteously. "Thank you, Nick." He then stooped to the floor and struck his chest to show his loyalty to the man standing in front of the table. "Good evening, Isaac. I have returned with Luke."

Isaac said nothing. He bit his thumbnail, skimming through a hodgepodge of maps and books. He had dark brown hair, a neatly trimmed beard, and penetrating blue eyes that stood in contrast to his black business suit.

Luke's knees were quaking uncontrollably and his light-headedness worsened. He dared not look the head witch hunter in the eyes. Isaac stopped biting his nail and sighed heavily, "Nick, help him out, will you?"

_How can he help me?_ Luke tried to remember where he'd seen this guy before. Certainly not from school or work.

Nick removed a key from around his neck and freed Luke from his bondage. He shook his hands and before he could massage the slick imprints, Nick firmly pressed a thumb to the crease of his wrist bone. "Try to stay still. This won't hurt, I promise," he grinned. Luke felt Nick's energy connecting with his, calming him, and reducing the swelling on his head._ What the hell?! Nick is a witch?!_

Isaac rubbed his forehead. "Luke, you failed to weaken Jack Frost." He pinched the bridge of his nose_. "Why?"_

"Alice threw a snowball at him–I didn't see her till the last minute–and he fell off his pedestal," Luke mumbled, crossing his arms and then tucking them under his armpits.

"So you hit the hockey player instead?"

"I didn't know what else to do! He landed right next to me and I panicked! You told me not to let him know I can see him! Sure…I could've gotten him then…but Alice evidently can see him, too!"

Isaac approached the foot of a bed and fiddled with the lock on an antique trunk. He rummaged through its contents and picked up a sack, emptying it. "Do you know what this is?" He asked, holding up an asymmetrical stone the color of black onyx.

Luke hesitated before answering. "A rock of nightmares." He'd hidden a similar, peculiar object in the snowball.

Isaac turned the rock over in his hand. "It looks rather harmless, doesn't it?" Sparks of Cerulean gleamed where it touched his skin. "But it is a powerful weapon nonetheless. Capable of crippling Guardians with their worst nightmares so much so they cannot fight back. The effects are…different for witches and mortals though. However, it always disintegrates once it has struck its intended target."

Isaac inspected the dark minerals and continued. "Let me tell you a story. Two-thousand years ago, the Roman Empire fell, ushering in the Dark Ages: a time when witch and mortal children lived in fear. The horror of the Three Rivers massacre was still fresh in their minds. Witch children feared they would suffer the same fate. Mortal children feared the 'wicked witches' would come seeking revenge. Pitch Black feed off those fears and grew strong. But then Hecate chose Sandy, who is the oldest Guardian, to fill their nights with sweet dreams. In the centuries to come, the goddess recruited more and more Guardians."

"It was a critical blow for the witch hunters." Isaac shook his head. "Because of the Guardians, many mortal children refused to take up arms against witches when they got older. They filled the young ones' heads with the heresy that magic is not evil. Meanwhile, the people were writing Pitch off as just a bad dream and he was losing the power he wielded as the King of Nightmares. He and our ancestors had a common enemy. So they declared war on the Guardians and formed an alliance."

His voice became aggravated. "Victory was almost ours. One by one, Pitch's nightmares devoured the Guardians until only three remained. But Hecate enlisted a Guardian by the name of Bunny. He turned the tide by giving the Guardians the hope they desperately needed to defeat us. As the Renaissance swept over Europe, Pitch went out with the Dark Ages. And the witch hunters retreated into the shadows till the Burning Times."

Isaac closed the gap between himself and Luke, a vein protruding from his temple. "This rock is one of Pitch's Nightmare Weapons salvaged from that war. We cannot replace them. And you…_WASTED ONE! _DID IT NOT OCCUR TO YOU TO STASH THE SNOWBALL INTO YOUR POCKET?!" His yells reverberated off the walls. Ethan smirked, thoroughly enjoying Isaac losing his temper.

Luke recoiled. "I-I'm sorry, Isaac," he stuttered. "I-I wasn't thinking…Adam-"

"Do not blame him for that misstep! You hid the rock in a snowball without any pitfalls!"

Luke clenched his fists. Isaac was right. How could he be so stupid?

He'd blown his only chance to give Jack Frost the payback he deserved. Luke would never forgive him for the blizzard of '03, a record-breaking snowstorm that had dumped two feet of snow. His older brother Adrian was shoveling snow when a vehicle skidded off the road and killed him on impact. Luke had been only six, but he hadn't witness the accident; he's been stuck at his grandparents' house. Understandably, his mom and dad simply explained that Jack took his brother away. When he was old enough to comprehend death, his mom, and dad revealed Jack had conjured the sheet of ice that caused the accident that killed Adrian, solidifying his hatred for magic.

Isaac's face gradually softened. "You're thinking about your brother," he stated matter-of-factly.

"It's none of your business!" Luke said acidly. _Go ahead…Kill me…Slit my throat...I don't care–_

"Luke," Isaac shook his shoulder lightly." Luke…Look at me–"

He met Isaac's eyes, his face an inflexible mask.

"I'm not going to kill you, Luke. I am not Eben. He would not have given you a chance to explain yourself."

"This mission was highly important. You trusted me and I failed," he said brusquely. "I disgraced my family's name."

Isaac gently squeezed his shoulder. "You come from a long line of exceptional witch hunters, Luke, but none of them were born full-fledged hunters. I would not kill a member of the Gilchrist family; hunters do not kill fellow hunters without a just cause. I am sorry for that outburst, Luke"–he handed the rock of nightmares to Nick– "put this away for me".

Nick popped the trunk open and Isaac pointed to the lid. "I stressed not to waste a Nightmare Weapon not because it's the only one in our possession. We have an array; however, I am anticipating Jack Frost not submitting to us easily. We can't afford to waste all of them. Once he's our prisoner, we will need to have an arrow or a lance on hand to prevent his escaping once the nightmares wear off and to bend his will to our own."

"Will you treat him like any other witch hunter once he's on our side?"

"No, he'll be nothing more than a tool for fighting fire with fire, as Nick said. We'll force him to spread fear among mortal children. He'll suffer greatly because of it. The Guardians believe fear is something to fight. But it is not all bad; if we weren't afraid of what would happen to mortals if we _didn't_ fight witches-"

Isaac glanced over at the psychic. "Once Lucy comes out of her trance, we will decide on our next course of action. If Jack has made Chance Harbor his home this winter, I'll give you a second chance. You volunteered because he killed your brother. Therefore, you should avenge him."

"No, no, no!" Ethan protested. "This inexperienced, incompetent _child _does not deserve a second chance! Let him torture Jack with the Nightmare Weapons!That should quench his thirst for–"

"I don't want to hear another word from you, Ethan. You had no reason to bring Luke here chained up like a witch…That treatment's reserved for hunters who have committed serious crimes, such as betrayal–"

"Isaac, Jack is the_ strongest_leverage we will _ever _gain. Because he's failed the mission, we now have _one last chance_ to complete it."

"I understand the mission's importance; no witch will stand against us with a Guardian fighting for us. Luke can help us complete the mission without rousing too many suspicions."

"If you had sent _me_–"

"You want an assignment? Be quiet or leave!"

Luke heard a contented sigh from the table. Her eyelids fluttered and she smiled as if she were waking from a good night's sleep.

"Ah, Lucy," Isaac held out his hands, welcoming her back. "Have you discovered the whereabouts of the elusive Jack Frost?"

Her eyes were wide with wonder. "His power is amazing. It's unlike anything I've ever felt." She paused, her voice too enthralled to continue.

"Yes, yes, tell us something we don't already know," Ethan said, an edge to his voice.

"Quiet, Ethan! Or I will gut you!" Isaac unsheathed the dagger on his belt. In response, Ethan puffed his chest out, grasping the handle of his dagger. The two men stared each other down till Nick got behind Isaac and narrowed his eyes warningly. Ethan sheathed his dagger furiously. With that witch protecting Isaac, he'd automatically lose the fight. "Get out NOW!"

Growling like a wounded animal, Ethan stomped out of the cabin, slamming the door on his way out.

"Tell us Lucy," Isaac implored.

"Moscow…I see him"–her eyes filmed over–"He's hanging onto the pole of a Russian Orthodox Church…Now he's called the wind–"

"Is he coming back to Chance Harbor?" Isaac asked keenly.

"Yes. I sense his energy moving…erratically…towards the town…He'll be back soon-"

"Excellent. That gives us till March" –Isaac paced across the room– "May at the latest-" He sat down on the couch, resting an ankle on his knee. "Have a seat everyone." Lucy did not get up since her chair was by the sofa. Luke and Nick took the easy chairs on either side of their leader.

"Luke…you said Alice saw Jack?" Isaac asked, running his fingers through his hair.

"Yes, but how can she–and I–see him for that matter? I thought the Guardians can only be seen by children who believe in them?"

"That's true," Nick said. "But there's an exception to this rule: if a witch is killed, the killer will see a Guardian regardless. Hecate did not assume witch hunts would end once she chose her Guardians. Therefore she made them visible to witch hunters to try and change our viewpoints."

"You're right, Nick. However"–Isaac leaned forward, folding his hands– "there's a select few witches can see Guardians as adults. Though why, I have no idea… Alice is an unofficial member of your former Circle. Do you suspect she's killed a witch?"

"I'm not sure what to suspect. Alice was always shy and introverted in public. But when she was with the Circle, she was friendly and caring and occasionally playful. She hardly talked about her life before moving to Chance Harbor. She either blew our questions off or answered cryptically…I was under the impression she's hiding something dark–"

Isaac nodded, absorbing the information.

"Alice did not throw that snowball at Jack for fun," Luke chimed in. "She looked angry…and sad… Maybe she's holding a grudge, too?"

"It's possible–" Isaac glanced out the window. A waxing gibbous moon was rising on the horizon, outlining the shapes of the desolate branches. His eyes shifted, identifying the _Mare Serenitatis_-the Sea of Serenity-the Man in the Moon's left eye.

Moonlight shone through the glass and he sensed the lunar entity's disapproval._ Don't look at me that way. You knew this day would eventually come._ "Here's what I want you to do, Luke. Keep an eye on Alice and Jack. Look out for his favorite spot in town. Ask Adam questions about her. Be her date for any upcoming dances. Just try to decide if she feels any animosity towards him."

"School doesn't start till January the fifth."

"That won't be a problem. It'll give us time to analyze potential–" Just then, the roof creaked as a random gust of wind blew through the cracks, sending a chill throughout the cozy cabin. Was this the Spirit of Winter's doing? Isaac looked to Lucy for confirmation. Her mouth hung open, dumbstruck, and he rushed outside with Luke and Nick right behind him, searching the skies. Grey snow clouds were moving in. Somewhere above them, Isaac heard faint whooping. "Nick, here's my car keys. Make sure Luke gets home safely," he said in controlled tone. "You both have my number. Keep me posted."

* * *

Chance Harbor's witch families were going to have Christmas dinner at the _Boathouse_, the bar and grill Adam's family owned. Preparations were so hectic Alice didn't have much time to think about Jack or Diana and Melissa.

On Christmas Eve, she and Darlene drove to Bellingham for some last-minute shopping. The streets were full, bumper-to-bumper, and the drivers were in a hurry. Behind them, a man in his early fifties tailgated them, honking his horn relentlessly. From the rear view mirror, Alice saw the man flip them off and utter something. She was a horrible lip reader, but she made out the most degrading name for a woman. _So much for peace on earth and goodwill to men._

Later that evening, Diana called from her cell phone, asking if she could drop by with her gift. She told her to hurry over and waited outside on the front porch swing. The night was mildly chilly and drizzle pattered on the awning. Not that she was complaining. For as long as she could remember, cold weather never bothered her…

"Here's your present." Alice jumped and Diana halfheartedly handed her a gift box with a green ribbon attached. "I'm sorry, I can't stay. My dad and grandma are waiting for me. We have a ton of presents to unwrap."

Alice raised an eyebrow. "Then why's there a piece of wrapping paper stuck in your hair?"

Diana frowned and patted her head. She pulled the piece of tape out and winced. "Ow! Okay! I lied. We're finished opening presents–" She fidgeted nervously. "Let's just get straight to the point. I came here to talk–"

Alice took a sharp intake of breath. "I called and texted you and Melissa a dozen times on Friday. I wanted to apologize for the way I acted. Were you avoiding me?" She said quietly.

Diana let all the air hiss out of her mouth. "Yes. But I had a good reason!" She added quickly. "I was mad! I was afraid I'd say something I'd regret–" She palmed the back of her neck. "Look, it's Christmas...I'll let this slide off my back–"

"Diana, you're my best friend–"

"Best friend?" Diana repeated skeptically.

"Yes! My best friend!" She said stubbornly. "The first day of school? You told me, the introvert, to come and sit with you at lunch. Then in world history, you slapped an invitation to a back-to-school slumber party onto my desk… without giving me the chance to decline! Damn girlie, you wouldn't leave me alone! And then after school, you dragged me to the Boathouse, introduced me to your _boyfriend, _and paid the bill."

She paused to catch her breath. "You were nice to me. I mustered the courage to tell you my secret. And thank God you didn't freak out! If it weren't for you, the Circle wouldn't have welcomed me. I'd be spending most of my time in the library or in the woods. So I think I owe you an explanation for the other day–"

Bit by bit, Diana's demeanor became cordial. "You don't have to," she said briskly. "Cassie told me everything. Jack Frost," she laughed uncertainly. I-I just…Alice… Faye _did _have a point…though I don't agree with the way she handle it…Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy…it's the parents– If they really existed, why aren't parents wondering where these presents, Easter baskets, and quarters came from?"

"Good question…I don't know how the Guardians operate…but I assume there's some sort of magic that keeps them calm…But that's not the point…Every one of them is real… Take into the accounts of millions of witches spanning a two-thousand year course. And my word as a three-hundred and thirty-six-year-old witch who's lived on every continent…except Antarctica," she said jokingly.

Diana hated to admit it, but deep down she knew Alice was right. Who else could have

"That day at the bus stop…when I was five… I assumed Adam threw that snowball when I was five…And every time I did I couldn't help from laughing and join in a snowball fight-"

"They say Jack Frost starts most snowball fights. Remember that old page on him? I wrote it. Of course, I didn't know he started snowball fights then. Why did Amelia leave that part out?" Alice hadn't patched the hole in her wall. Every time she said Jack's name or thought of him, she felt another block chipping away.

"Are you related to Cassie?" Diana said, flabbergasted.

"No. I was living with Amity and Hiram Blake–Cassie's _ancestors_–in Burgess, Pennsylvania when I met Jack. His family owned the inn where I sang for the guests. At first, I ignored him, but he wanted to get my attention so badly–"she smiled candidly–"I don't think anyone ignored him for as long as I did; his fun-loving personality was too contagious. He played tricks on Janie and me for fun. So one day, I challenged him for the title of 'ultimate prankster' and won." She giggled and said to herself, "Bugs, who'd have thunk?"

Her face changed from humorous to serious. "After everything I'd been through, I needed someone like him. His mom perceived him as a troublemaker. But there was no malice in his mischief. All he wanted was for people to enjoy their lives–"

She grinded a patch of slush with her foot. "I'd already lost so many people I loved. His death hurt me and I made a decision not to get close to anyone again. That's why it's difficult for me to open up to others."

Diana was rendered speechless. "Holy crap! What is going on? I haven't gotten this much out of you before."

"I don't know," Alice shook her head, dumbfounded. She was quiet for a moment, recalling her conversation with Cassie. "I guess it's because…the pain of missing him is stronger than the pain of his inevitable departure–" Her voice wobbled and her eyes turned misty.

Diana joined her on the swing. "I know it'll be hard to say goodbye… But surely your paths will cross again someday soon?"

"I wouldn't count on it. I last saw him the evening of December 21, 1713. Even if he wanted to stay with me, I'd tell him to go freeze some Florida orange trees. I mean, he's a _Guardian_ for heaven's sake! He's got important things to do and I can't tie him down. I can't be selfish–"

"Do you love him?"

"Wh-What?" Alice said, startled.

"Do you love him?"

"No! I–I mean, yes, I love him. But I'm not _in _love with him if that's what you mean! There's a difference!" She said defiantly. "Why do you ask?"

Diana sighed sadly. "Because I don't understand your thinking. Why don't you want him to stay with you? If he can travel around the world and be back in Chance Harbor in one day–"

"No," she said horrified. "Diana I can't! I will always be searching for a way to break my curse. And what if I do in a century? A millennium? Do you think I'd let him watch me grow old and die?"

"No…but–" Diana racked her brain for a rebuttal, but fell short; it was Christmas Eve and she moved on to a lighter topic, "Why don't you open your present?"

"Sure," Alice said with forced interest. Inside the gift box laid a silver cardinal pendant in a plastic bag. The artist must have spent hours carving in the details to produce a life-like replica.

She thought of the day Jack taught her how to skate on the pond where he'd die and rise as a Guardian. Cardinals nested in this region of the woods. He promised to hold onto her till she got the hang of it and clung to him in such a way she imagined Thackeray fuming with jealously on the Other Side. Skating was like a form of dancing that required perfect balance. And she was a singer. Her sister Emeline was the dancer. She wobbled and fell on top of him, between his legs of all places! When they hit the bank of the pond neither of them laughed at her clumsiness.

They remained in that position longer than what is appropriate for an accident. He got to his feet, never taking his eyes off her, which held an expression she couldn't quite discern. They were like a magnet, drawing her to him. She never knew who kissed whom first. Kissing him was not like kissing Thackeray. His lips were warm and soft on hers. She felt something building inside her that was going to explode. Something hot and powerful and radiant like a supernova. She tugged on his upper lip and he growled hotly, crushing her body to his. Things were heating up rapidly. He ran his fingers through her hair and yanked her head back gently, deepening the kiss. Her hands roamed his face and neck passionately and she moaned. Once she heard the noise escape her lips, she shoved against his chest, gasping for air and said "no more"…

"So what do you think?" Diana asked, dispelling the memory from her mind and her cheeks reddened in embarrassment. "It's lovely. Thanks!" She said sincerely and put the necklace on, slipping the gray cardinal beneath her shirt. Her ruddy skin warmed the pendant and she was grateful the temperature was plunging.

**A/N: Stay tuned! Alice and Jack officially meet again in the next chapter! Review, Favorite, Follow!**


	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Melissa texted Alice before she went to bed. Diana said she had left three days ago to spend the holidays with her step-mom, whom her dad divorced four years earlier. Melissa's step-mom rented a cabin in the Olympic Mountains. The cell phone reception was poor. Tonight, she had a strong signal and sent her a text. Melissa said she forgave her and sympathized with her. Prior to her arrival in Chance Harbor, Melissa dated Jake for two years before he death and she refused to disclose the cause. Diana told her Jake drowned himself to kill a demon that'd possessed him. Alice's heart broke for her.

Melissa was her closest friend, second only to Diana. The two girls bonded quickly due to their reserved natures. Nevertheless, she was a caring and sensible kind of girl. She inherited her mom's talent for potion making. If she went to _Hogwarts_, she would have been one of _Professor Snape's_ favorite students. She followed Faye everywhere like a loyal and submissive dog. But luckily, she and Faye drifted apart once Jake died and the latter sought ways to access her solo magic.

Christmas Day, Faye sat in a booth in the Boathouse with Jamie and her mom. The Elders and parents were preparing Christmas dinner in the kitchen. Strings of popcorn decorated the counters and Jane, who worked as a nurse, made a Christmas tree from blown-up sanitary gloves. Alice sat in the booth in front of them and she couldn't help but overhear Jamie recount how he and his friends helped Jack and the Guardians defeat Pitch. Mrs. Chamberlain indulged him, pretending to be fascinated. Faye, however, held her hand to her face in makeshift visor, hiding the tortured look on her face.

"–I said, 'You're leaving? What if Pitch comes back? What if we stop believing again? If I can't see you…' And Jack said, 'Hey, slow down. Slow down. Slow down. You're telling me you stop believing in the moon when the sun comes up?' And I said, 'No.' And then he said, 'Okay. Well, do you stop believing in the sun when the clouds block it out?' And then I said, 'No'–"

"Cute story!" Faye interrupted him, her voice light with ridicule. "You should be a writer."

_"Faye!"_ Mrs. Chamberlain reprimanded unskillfully.

Faye hunched her shoulders. "I'm just being supportive. He's got a very creative mind… You should major in English when you go to college, little guy."

"Jack Frost is real!" Jamie asserted in a whining tone. "He made it snow in my room–" He clenched his fists and waggled his head to emphasize his point and did a double take. A toothy grin spread across his face as he looked out the window. "He's here," he said in a voice barely above a whisper. "Aunt Dawn, he's here!"

Alice's blood tingled pleasantly. "Where?!" She gasped, nearly pressing her nose to the glass. Jamie turned to her and his smile left his face. "Out on the lake," he said, leery.

She scrambled to her knees, her breath fogging the window. Jack ran…no…_glided _like a zephyrean wind across the choppy lake next to the _Boathouse's _deck. He dragged his staff, leaving a trail of frost in his wake. Wherever his bare feet touched the water, ice formed. He slid on the ice and skidded. The wind carted him along and he crashed into the bushes. He laughed heartily, picking twigs from his hoodie.

"Whoa-ho! Did you see that?" Jamie crowed, standing. Alice failed to suppress a giggle.

"What is so funny?" He said, paranoid.

"Sit down and behave! There's no one out –" Faye began, grabbing a fistful of his shirt. He kicked her in the shin petulantly. "_OW! _Why you–How did a brat like you get on _North's _nice list?"

"Faye! I want you to apologize!" Mrs. Chamberlain said ineptly.

"Yeah, you want to try that again? 'Cause I have done nothing wrong–" Faye said outraged.

Faye often got away with defying her mom. This was ironic because Mrs. Chamberlain was a strict principle who showed a willing incompetency to discipline her daughter. "Perhaps you'd like to discuss this somewhere else?"

Faye scoffed and then sighed, rolling her eyes, "Whatever." She and her mom exited the grill and bar through the side door and Jamie stuck his tongue out, mumbling, "Nyah! Nyah! Nyah!"

"Mmm!" She pointed a finger warningly, made a fist, and then punched her palm.

_Good luck reigning in your badass daughter, Mrs. Chamberlain!_Alice rested her chin on the back of the booth. "Faye's a lot to handle, huh?" She said to Jamie.

"Ugh! Yes!"

"She knows how to push everyone's buttons."

"Uh-huh–" He tied an imaginary noose round his neck and chortled. "Why do I bother talking to her? She's a grown-up. She can't see the Guardians anymore."

"Well, I'm a grown-up and I believe in Jack Frost, Jamie," she said, looking straight into his round, amber eyes. "I can see him, too."

His eyes almost popped out of his sockets and then narrowed suspiciously. "How do I know you're not playing along with me?"

She told Jamie what she'd seen Jack doing and his mouth hung open for the longest time. Suddenly, he whooshed past her, bouncing excitedly. "This is so cool!" He ran to the main entrance, grabbing his coat and toboggan. "Let's go and see Jack!"

_Shit! Right now? Why not tomorrow?_ "Wait, Jamie! What-What I am supposed to say to him?"

"I don't know! Whatever you want? Come on! Hurry up, slowpoke!" He tugged on the lower strings of her fleece jacket, wrenching her out the door. "Mom! Alice and I are going outside!" He stated as the sailboat wheel clock chimed twelve times.

He let go of her when they were halfway down the steps and raced to the deck, hopping onto the last rung of the guard rail. "JACK! HEY JACK!" He hollered, cupping his hands to his mouth.

Jack leisurely strolled on the lake, his staff resting on his shoulder. He started at the sound of his name. "Jamie?" He smiled hugely. He pushed off from the ice and landed on the terrace. "Hey kiddo! I wasn't expecting to find you here."

The two began talking, catching up on everything that had happened to them since last March. At some point in the conversation, Jamie motioned towards Alice, who stayed hidden, her clothes blending in with Adam's Jeep.

Jack's icy blue eyes met Alice's sultry green eyes. He studied her face and his heart was like an ice-cube thumping in his chest. This young woman–the one he saw four nights ago– was a dead ringer for Alice Sanderson: fair translucent skin, deep-set sea green eyes, and Venetian Blond hair…

The night he brought Sophie (Jamie's sister) home after she accidentally teleported to Bunny's warren, Alice's voice cried out to him. He followed the noise into the woods and stumbled upon Pitch's lair. It had been a trick to lure him, a diversion for Pitch's Nightmare Horses to destroy Bunny's eggs and ruin Easter. But in the process, Pitch gave him the golden cylinder containing his teeth.

The Boogeyman approached him in Antarctica, offering his friendship and the chance for them to spread fear and darkness and make people believe in them. But that's not what he wanted. Upset, Pitch threatened to hurt Baby Tooth unless he handed over his staff. Reluctantly, he surrendered it, but Pitch broke it in half and shot him with a spray of black sand, sending him to the bottom of a ravine, beaten and weak.

The little tooth fairy crawled into his shirt pocket. He assumed she was just trying to stay warm. Then his pocket glowed and Alice and Janie called to him. Their voices were distant memories. Baby Tooth activated the cylinder. All he had to do was touch the diamond sapphire in the center and every important memory of his life before he became Jack Frost would be his…

An image of Alice appeared. He developed a crush on her shortly after her arrival in Burgess, which never went away. None of the girls in town caught his eye. His silly behavior put them off. And compared to Alice, they were nondescript in terms of character. Her eyes were heavy, tired, and poignant. But behind them, he saw a suppressed vivaciousness.

All the crazy stuff they did together…With respect to personality, she was his twin: witty, mischievous, clever, and kind. He didn't know if he believed she was the reincarnation of Alice Sanderson. The similarities were _too_ uncanny. Did witches have longevity?

Alice's heart beat like a lump of burning coal in her chest. She emerged from between Adam's Jeep and Cassie's station wagon. She thought of a fun way to reintroduce herself. "Jamie, who are you talking to?" She asked, her expression impassive.

"Jack Frost… Duh! Do you see anyone else?" Jamie said, not catching on.

Jack's face brightened. "She sees me?"

"Yeah! She told me what you were doing!"

"He must have left," Alice said, deliberately breaking the rules for tricking spirits into thinking they're invisible. She did not let her eyes wander and looked away quickly when she and Jack made eye contact.

"Alice, he's right beside me!" Jamie shook his hands emphatically.

Jack moved smoothly. He was close enough to touch her. "Your name is Alice?" What were the odds she'd have_ her_ name and not some variant? He then glimpsed the lumpy, pallid scar on her knuckles and he knew she _had_ to be the same Alice. "It is you!"

Her nostrils flared, catching the scent of pine needles and spearmint. "No, he's not," she grinned and paced back and forth, rubbing her upper arms. "Oh! Is it just me or is it starting to get colder?"

"Come on, Alice! You're not fooling me! You can see him!"

Jack smirked, playing along with her. "No, that's me! I'm making the temperature go down." He flew overhead, swooping down in front of her, but she turned her back on him. He blocked her path again and she just twirled in the opposite direction. They carried on with this flirtatious dance, gaining momentum with each step. To thwart a collision, she maneuvered to the left and snatched his staff. "Hi there, Jack _Burgess_!"

His mouth fell open, perplexed. His hand clasped the air where his staff had been a split second ago.

Alice laughed giddily. "Is this how you bring all the blizzards and the snow days? An oversized wand?" She inspected the grooves in the wood.

Jack recovered and cleared his throat in a jest. "It's a staff, not a wand," he corrected, moving imperceptibly.

Alice mirrored his movement. "Staff, schmaff! It's a long hand-held piece of wood imbued with magic, ain't it? Therefore, it classifies as a wand," she said, haughtily.

Jack raised his eyebrows tantalizingly. "But a wand is not limited to one type of magic."

While they were exchanging playful banter, he'd closed the distance between them. She positioned the staff a full arm's length behind her, out of his reach. She expected a jet of frost to shoot out of the tip in the process. Nothing happened. "What in the… Why didn't it work?"

"The wand chooses the wizard, Miss Alice," Jack said, quoting Ollivander Wand from _Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone._

"Humph! You're right. This ain't a wand–Ahahaha!" She squealed loudly as he playfully tried to grab the staff from her and dodged him, erupting into a fit of giggles. She was acting like her old self again, which somehow came natural to her around Jack.

Eventually, he cornered her against a lamppost and she wrapped her arms around him tightly, pressing the staff into his back. He reached behind his neck and his fingers probed hers, prompting her to release her grip. His skin was as smooth as the wind and though it was as cold as the Arctic Ocean during the Ice Age, it felt strangely pleasant. She jerked as a shiver ran through her body and he fought the impulse to stroke her wrist. She he handed the staff back to him modestly and he let go. "It's good to see you again, Jack. I have missed you so much." _More than I can describe in words…_

"I have missed you, too." For three-hundred years, he felt this longing ache deep inside him and until his memories returned, he had no clue this feeling stemmed from his missing her. "You haven't changed a bit."

Alice almost said she had change, but that statement would be false. Excluding their second meeting, she most certainly hadn't changed around him. "And neither have you"–Her mouth crinkled– "Well, sort of–"She laughed, pointing to his hair, eyes, and clothes.

He ran a hand through his hair. "You're probably wondering why I look this way–"

"It's because you're the Guardian they call"–she paused for dramatic effect–"Jack Frost."

"You-you know I'm a Guardian?" He said, his eyes narrowing inquisitively.

"We have _lots_ of catching up to do."

Jack understood the meaning behind the meaning of the emphasis. "Speaking of _lots_, you can live–" he said, forgetting Jamie's presence.

Alice signaled for him to be quiet. "Not here with– I promise I'll explain later," she mouthed. She did not want Jamie to babble her secret to everybody.

"Hey guys?!" He interjected, stamping his foot. "I'm standing right here! Did you forget about me? What's going on here? You two know each other?"

Jack flinched. "Sorry Jamie. Alice and I were…_are_…best friends…We haven't seen each other in _ages_–_"_

"Is that why you can see him–"

"Actually, I'm not sure why _I _can see him–"

"Faye used to believe in the Guardians," Jamie said unhappily. Alice kind of knew this already. Faye's views on the Guardians in general were cynical.

"I believed in them my whole life thanks to her. I miss those days when I was real, real little. On Christmas Eve, she and I left out North's favorite cookies and snuck downstairs for a peek–" He trailed off, talking more to himself. The trio found themselves on the boardwalk. "If I can make her remember all the unexplained things we discovered– I guess that's why I go on and on about the Guardians when I visit. I want her to believe again. But she thinks I'm making things up. Or I was too young to remember anything–"

"Who's Faye?" Jack asked.

As they made their way farther and farther down the boardwalk, they heard an argument coming from the stern of Ethan's sport fishing boat. Faye's brows wrinkled angrily and she waved her hands irritably while Dawn gesticulated pleadingly

"That is Faye," Alice said, nodding to a girl with lustrous black hair, rose-colored cheeks, hazel eyes framed with spider lashes, and full lips.

"–I'm trying to save him from what I went through! North, Bunny, Sandy, and Tooth– You convinced me they were–_without a doubt_–real! That only made the disappointment, the hurt, and the _humiliation_ worse when I found out the truth!"

"I wanted your childhood to last as long as possible. Kids these days grow up too fast," Dawn said defensively. "Kids need magic–," She said breathlessly. The Elders stripped the Circle's parents of their magic after the boatyard fire because evidence suggested witchcraft set the small steel ship ablaze.

The power-hungry look in Dawn's eyes went over Faye's head. "My God! You don't get it, do you? By the time I was thirteen, I still believed in the Guardians _with all my heart_!" She pressed her hands to her sternum sarcastically.

"Believing pass the age of nine is ridiculous! My classmates kept trying to tell me it's the parents! Remember David Montello? He punched me in the mouth for defending Tooth's existence and I lost my last baby tooth. I did not start the fight. Yet the teacher put all the blame on me and that's when you and I sat down to talk–," she hissed.

"I didn't have a choice! Things simply got out of hand. The truth had to come out–"

Faye crossed her arms and shook her head disdainfully. "Too late."

Alice nudged Jamie, turning him around. "Why don't we leave them alone? If Faye caught us eavesdropping–"

He didn't protest. "–She'll spill our darkest secrets unless we agree to do as she says."

"You still haven't told me who she is," Jack said to Alice.

"She belongs to my _circle _of friends," she said in simple terms.

"And she's my cousin," Jamie said, glumly.

Jack could hardly imagine... No, he took that back…. It wasn't out of character for Alice to befriend a… interesting person like Faye. She had good listening and observation skills, which enabled her to see a different side of a person…

Alice sensed Jack forming the preconceived notions the Circle held. "Faye has her nasty moments. She can be brash, eccentric, and selfish. But she _does_ genuinely care–" She said, to curtail damage to Faye's character.

Jamie scoffed, "When has she showed she cares?"

"Well, Diana once told me she really gave Jack"–She blew a raspberry and yelled–"Waaaah! _Jake!_Jack and _Jake _sound alike!Anyway,she really gave_ Jake _heck for treating Melissa like garbage–"

Jack laughed and rubbed his forehead. "I'm a little confused. Diana, Jake, Melissa? How many friends are in your _circle?_ Besides Faye?"

"There's Cassie Blake, Diana Meade, Melissa Glaser, Adam Conant, and Nick Armstrong."

"And what are their takes on the Guardians?"

"Cassie accepted the Guardians' existence in almost no time at all. Diana and Melissa were skeptics. Nick left Chance Harbor before I thought of asking him. And Adam's never believed–"

"That's the worst part about being a Guardian," Jack said gloomily. "When children stop believing–"

"I don't think anyone truly stops believing in the Guardians."

"Jamie's mom called me an expression."

"Well, to her you're the name for blustery winter winds. I mean, as an adult, she still believes in you. Just in another form. North's sometimes perceived as the Spirit of Giving, for example. The desire to bring joy to others during the holidays. And Tooth is the memories we hold dearly."

"How is it you always know what to say–?" For most of his life as an unofficial Guardian, no one believed in him for that matter. People walked right through him like a ghost. It was as if he never existed… If he'd heard these words from Alice on the night he was reborn, would the last three-hundred years have been easier, even if no one ever saw him or believed he was someone? People believing he is _something_ was a better alternative to people believing he is nothing. "How is it you always know what to say?"

She saw the doting appreciation in his eyes and hung her head shyly. "Not always–" Jamie turned away and gagged from the mushy sight.

As he did, he glimpsed Cassie staring out the window of the _Boathouse_, open-mouthed. One side of her face twisted into a half-smile. Diana passed by and stopped, asking her what she was looking at. Cassie's eyebrows touched her hairline and she joggled her head, the body language substitution for "duh". Diana strained to see Alice and then her eyes widened in astounded recollection at the person standing beside her.


	7. Chapter 6

**A/N: Sorry this took so long, guys! But the next four chapter have been ****_really_**** difficult for me to write! Chapters 6 and 7 were so long I had to split them up into new chapters. I have decided I am not going to exceed 5,000 words on further chapters to make it easier for my readers. Most chapters in fan fiction are not very long anyway. Now without further ado, enjoy!**

**Chapter 6**

"When's Jack coming back?" Cassie asked. She lay on the floor of Alice's bedroom. She came over to her house for a homework party. Their summaries for English class were due in the morning.

"Sometime tonight," she replied, not taking her eyes off her desktop computer. Her fingernails produced a staccato sound as she typed the last paragraph on her synopsis of _To Kill A Mockingbird_."He said he'll be back once the holidays settle down…Which is usually after New Year's Day."

Cassie faked hurt. "I still haven't forgiven you for not introducing me!"

"Yes! Done!" Alice automatically saved and printed the document. "Well then why didn't you come out and say 'hi', silly? He doesn't…er…frostbite?"

Cassie rotated her wrists to work out the knots. "I didn't want to _bother_ you guys."

"What do you mean? Jack wouldn't mind if you interrupted us. In fact, he'd love to meet another person who can see him."

"You know…_bother_," Cassie said emphatically. "As in giving you some privacy–"

Alice cut her finger on a piece of loose leaf sticking out from her English folder. She sucked on the wound, applying pressure to staunch the blood flow. " Cassie, I've been through this with Diana. I love Jack, but I'm not _in _love with him. 'In love'as in romantically."

"I see the way you look at him–"

"And how do I look at him?" Alice searched through her untidy drawers for a band-aid. By nature, she was a disorganized person in regards to tidiness and sticking to a schedule. Having unlimited time on her hands, it was a habit she picked up. But during the time she'd been in Chance Harbor, she'd gotten better keeping an agenda.

"I don't know…Like he's the–" Cassie wavered in her words as she multitasked on writing and talking. "Like he's the colorless sunrise?"

"The wh-what?" Alice's book bag hit the floor with a thud as she tried to shake its contents to the bottom.

"The colorless sunrise," Cassie cringed as she repeated the simile.

Alice laughed spastically and put her head down. "You're–You're su–such a–!"

Cassie's face turned bright red. "Wha–? I'm a what?!"

"Wh–where d–did t–that c–come f–from?" She pounded her desk between paroxysms of laughter.

"The winter months are usually cloudy!" Cassie cried in a high-pitched voice. "The clouds are grey! The sunrise is grey! Grey is colorless! Colorless Sunrise!"

Alice held her breath and did a simple math equation to stop her laughter. When she was able to speak properly again, she cleared her throat and said, "It's a…um…unique–"

"Cheesy. Come on, you can say it," Cassie typed faster, her mortification giving her a surge of energy.

"Well, it's not a metaphor that suits him, in my opinion," Alice said sheepishly. "Despite the fact that he's a winter spirit, he's not cold (no pun intended) lifeless or dull–"

"See? See?" Cassie exclaimed, pointing a finger accusingly. But she was obviously teasing her. "You speak highly of him and you s_till _deny you like him–" She shrieked and covered her head as Alice hit her with a pillow.

"Because. He's. My. Friend," Alice said through gritted teeth between each whack. "Friends do that for each other, don't they?" She cocked her head, imitating a _Cheshire Cat_ grin.

"All right! All right! Okay!" Cassie shouted, holding up her palms in surrender. "Whatever helps you sleep–"

Alice brought the pillow down hard. "You're such a cheeseball!"

"Hey!" Cassie scrambled out the way, grabbing a decorative pillow from the bed on the way. "There's nothing wrong with cheese! It's high in calcium and protein!"

The girls carried on with a pillow fight, neither one gaining the upper hand. Cassie cheated and used magic to bust open Alice's down pillow, effectively ending the match and sending feathers flying into the air.

Not wanting a mess on her bedroom floor, Alice closed her eyes and focused on the feathers. She put her hand up in a halting gesture. The feathers froze in mid-air. Bringing her hands together, her fingertips inches apart, the feathers coalesced into a cardinal. She then motioned as if she were pushing an object. The bird zoomed around the room. It fell apart over a trashcan after completing its first round. Her hands fell as if they had turned to lead. She gasped and rested her hands on her thighs, panting.

Cassie watched the feathers float into the garbage can. "Where did you learn to do that?"

Alice held up a finger, indicating she needed a minute to catch her breath. "Decades… of… practice," she wheezed as if she'd run two miles and back.

"You okay?"

"Uh–huh," she said weakly. "Takes…a lot of energy…to make a bunch of objects…act like an animal–" She snorted and wiped her nose. Blood dripped down her fingers.

"Oh God!" Cassie whipped her head around the room, looking for a Book of Shadows. Witches' noses bled if they pushed themselves hard with a spell that required too much energy.

"Don't worry," Alice gulped. "I'll survive–" She felt the curse working its magic to heal her injuries. "I'm immortal, I'll literally never die."

"Why were you cursed?" Cassie thought aloud. Alice never gave any hints for this question's answer. For this reason, Adam–who acted as the Circle's rock and adviser–treated Alice with suspicion. However, she and Diana took an immediate liking to her. Their intuition told them to. And so far, they were right to listen to it.

Alice's lower lip trembled, "I stopped an evil man".

"He must have been to curse you–"

"Yes he was," Alice said blankly.

Cassie sensed she meant for the conversation to end on this line based on tone. Alice began folding origami cranes, absorbed in her thoughts.

In the meantime, she concentrated on finishing her work, occasionally glancing from her screen to Alice. What seemed like hours later, she was finally done with her rundown on _A Separate Peace_. Sighing in relief, she closed the lid halfway when yellow streaks flashed across her monitor. "What the– Please don't tell me the screen's starting to go?"

Alice looked up from her origami. She set the paper crane down, walked over to the window, and sighed contentedly. "Right on time, Sandy."

"The Sandman's here?" Cassie checked the time on her iPhone. Eight twenty-nine. She supposed some of the younger kids would be in bed already. She joined Alice by the window. "Holy–" She blinked rapidly.

A herd of Apatosaurus ambled down the streets of Chance Harbor. Schools of goldfish and dolphin pods swam through the windows of the second floors. The dreams were made entirely of sand that shone an ethereal golden hue. Cassie could make out the shapes of each grain as if it was a picture on an HD TV.

"Just how powerful are the Guardians?" She breathed, awe in her voice. Alice fashioned a cardinal out of two dozen feathers, but only had enough power to make it fly in a circle once. To compile millions of sand particles into a convincing replica of an animal _and_ imbue them with a sleeping spell was an amazing feat!

"Powerful enough to stay in control of a storm," Alice eyed Cassie knowingly.

"You heard? When I set foot in Chance Harbor, I completed the Circle. That gave them twice as much power and Faye took advantage by conjuring a typhoon–"

"Diana told me you calmed the storm."

"Yeah. All I had to do was say 'make it stop'. My grandma said I have that power 'cause the Blakes can trace their lineage back to the beginning of witchcraft–"

"That's funny," Alice's voice trailed off softly. "Who was your father?"

"John," Cassie answered, expressionless.

"Do you know his last name?"

"It was hard for my mom to talk about him. I'd just been born when he died in the boatyard fire."

Alice appeared trouble. Her eyes darted from side-to-side as if she were trying to rationalize some insane assumption.

"What's wrong?" Cassie asked, feeling somewhat uneasy.

Alice rubbed her temples. "Never mind. I'm just over thinking–"

"Umm, okay." She found it difficult to worry. Probably because of the positive energy, Sandy brought with him. With each passing second, more and more streaks of sand flitted like comets. They shaped themselves into ballerinas and horses, and airplanes and bicycles. So much so Cassie swore it was daytime. "I didn't think Chance Harbor has this many children."

"From the looks of it"–Alice shielded her eyes– "Tonight, Sandy's using Chance Harbor as a 'dock' for shipping good dreams to children up and down the west coast."

"Chance Harbor's becoming a popular hangout for Guardians, huh?"

"Well, North only leaves the Pole on Christmas Eve. Or if the Guardians are in danger. Bunny hides in his warren and the connecting tunnels, mixing paint and tending his egg plants. I don't mean the vegetables. His flowers reveal an egg when they bloom. He only emerges when North calls the Guardians for a meeting and on Easter Sunday. And Tooth hasn't left her palace in the Huang Shan Mountains for four-hundred and forty years. Countless mini tooth fairies, which resemble her, collect the teeth. She sorts them and puts them away."

Alice closed the window blinds. But the light of the dreams flickered through the slits like a jar of fireflies.

Cassie didn't have to ask why she could now watch Sandy work. "Does he do this every night?"

"Pretty much, yeah. The sand lasts only one night."

"There's millions of kids in North America. Let alone the United States. How can he be certain the dreams will find their way to each of them?"

"The dreams are drawn to children. They 'race' to find a child before the sun comes up. And when they do, they turn into something that child likes."

"Sandy must really like me. I've never had a nightmare in my life."

"You've never had a bad dream?" Alice repeated skeptically.

"Okay…Maybe once… Or twice–" Cassie hunched her shoulders. "When I was a little girl, I used to dream about unicorns all the time." She went on to tell her that these dreams were why she'd collected unicorn statues and artwork. She asked Alice what she often dreamt of.

"I haven't dreamt in centuries," she said bluntly._ Except the night I met Jack again… _That's when she had her first nightmare in ages. She remembered floating in a dark pond. Suffocating from a lack of oxygen. Numb from the cold. All rational thought lost to paralyzing fear._ That must been Jack's state before he died. _She cringed and shoved the memory of the nightmare to the back of her mind.

Cassie assumed "in centuries" referred to the days before the curse. She wanted to kick herself for not thinking that Alice might be suffering from nightmares after the events that changed her life. "I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to be thoughtless–"

"You're not. I'm lucky I never woke up screaming from a nightmare," Alice said, surprisingly nonchalant. Shouldn't she have difficulty discussing this? No, because her dreamless nights occurred _after_ the Francis Balcoin incident. "I suppose when you have nothing but time, your mind doesn't dwell on the day's events while you're asleep."

"Do you miss dreaming?" Cassie delicately imposed, a hint of sadness in her voice.

Alice frowned indifferently. "To be honest, I'd much rather daydream where I have _control _over the things running through my head. That's a suitable alternative, don't you think?"

Cassie nodded in agreement. "Is it okay for me to ask what you used to dream about?"

She shrugged apathetically. "Nothing worth sharing. My dreams were…stupid. None of them made a pound of sense." And then turning to face Cassie, she said in an earnest voice, "Why are you interested in my dreams?"

"I'm trying to understand who you were–"

"Who I was?" Alice scrunched her eyes in confusion.

"I didn't know _you_ back then."

"Cassie, the old _me_ is still in here. You have seen glimpses of her. I have held back pieces of who I am so I won't draw anyone's attention. On Christmas Day…You saw Alice Balcoin…The uncensored version."

Watching Alice and Jack, Cassie hadn't seen her more comfortable in the three months she'd known her personally. "Dreams can tell us a lot about someone. But then again–"

Alice pulled her lips together to hold back a snicker. "Are you calling me a weirdo? You're probably right though! Not that I'm offended!" She said blithely.

"I was gonna say," Cassie said rather loudly. "Dreams can tell us a lot about someone. But then again, I'm not as pure or innocent as a unicorn–"

Alice gasped and clapped her hands in delight. "I knew it! I knew it! The quiet, short ones secretly crave passion!" She whispered seductively.

"Oh!" Cassie groaned in frustration and then shook her head, chuckling. "What I'm trying to say is dream horoscopes are as credible as astrological horoscopes. If we_ all _see unicorns in our dreams, does that mean we are _all_ idealistic, hopeful, and insightful?"

Alice stretched her arms, yawning. "Beats me. Are we _all_ innocent and pure if we see a unicorns in our–" Cassie raised a large throw pillow above her head, grinning evilly.

"Whoa! What do you think you're doing?" Alice pulled a blanket up to her nose.

"For the last time, seeing a unicorns in a dreams means you're idealistic, hopeful, and insightful. Look it up on Google!"

"Sorry! My grandpa shuts the Wi-Fi off at eight forty-five!" Alice kicked the pillow out of Cassie's hands and grabbed the end with her toes. "By the way, you owe me a new _Jaclyn Smith_ pillow!"

Cassie took baby steps, slowly extending her arms. "How 'bout I give you one of mine?"

Alice guessed her plan to steal back the pillow and hugged it possessively. "Why thank you! I can pick it up on the way home from Dunkin' Donuts!" On cue, her stomach gurgled. "I'm starving! Haven't had something to nibble on in five hours!"

"Shouldn't we wait awhile? What if you hit a dream and fall asleep at the wheel?"

"There's no need to sit around waiting, sweetie." Alice grabbed her car keys from a bowl on her night stand–"I've got the greatest weapon against Sandy"–she raised an unfinished Starbucks cappuccino–"literally."

During the drive from Dunkin' Donuts to Cassie's house, Alice maneuvered to avoid hitting the dreams, which dwindled as the night progressed. While she waited at the longest red light in Chance Harbor, a black car with paint peeling off the hood came to a stop behind her. Its headlights were on high beam. "Aww, that's nice of them!" Alice said in a mockingly thoughtful voice. "Turning–"she adjusted her rearview mirror to deflect the lights and saw the profile of a man in the driver's seat– "_his_ high beam lights on if I want to play my Gameboy Advance!" She'd typically let this go. But for some reason, this man irritated the heck out of her.

The light turned green and Alice hit the gas pedal, going the speed limit. The dark vehicle screeched forward and was on her tail in a matter of seconds. She couldn't see its front bumper in her rearview mirror. Breaking was not an option. The road had two lanes. If the driver were in such a damn hurry, he should pass her. But then again, some drivers didn't bother to pass if their turnoff wasn't far.

"Seriously? What's his problem?" Cassie exclaimed in annoyance.

"Who knows? He went to Taco Bell, ate a burrito, and got food poisoning?" Alice's thumbs rapped the wheel, irked. "Let's see if this asshole can decipher Morse code!" She flashed her headlights incessantly. "Get… the… hell… off… my… tail!"

The man backed off and Alice braked to make a left turn. "Go kiss someone else's bumper!" Moments later, the car turned onto the same street. She pushed on the gas pedal to widen their gap further. This time, the driver kept his distance. Suspiciously, he made the same turns as Alice.

"Is he following us?" Cassie said apprehensively. Her heart pounded as she eyed the car in her side view mirror, willing it to turn off. Or park.

Alice made random left and right turns, heading nowhere in particular. But she couldn't lose the man. "He's following us," Alice confirmed, her aggravation replaced with worry.

Drawing from her experiences, she made a U-turn and tried to pinpoint a well-lit, populated area to call the police.

Somewhere behind them, a sandy line rushed forward, moving parallel with Alice's _Chevy Impala_. A cat materialized, holding its tail high and prancing lazily. Its ears twitched and ran ahead as if it were chasing a mouse.

"Follow that good dream," Cassie instructed, growing more and more agitated with the man. "And you should see an Exxonon the right."

The closer she got to the gas station, the brighter it became. And not because of the streetlights. A dozen streaks of sand glided in all directions, away from a clearing with picnic tables and trashcans surrounding a mermaid statue. Sandy was somewhere to the left, above the town square. Exxon was on down the road from the right arm of the three-way intersection.

They'd reached another traffic light. The driver turned on his left direction light. At the last-minute, he tried to cross over into the turning lane and sideswiped her bumper in the process.

He knocked the front end of her car to the right and the tire hit the curb forcefully.

Alice and Cassie lurched forward and their seat belts locked, holding them in place. Both let out startled gasps. "Are you alright?" Alice asked Cassie, alarmed and furious. The man stopped his car. In the light, she recognized it as a BMW.

Before Cassie could say anything, the man put his car in reverse and the tires squealed in protest as he drove backwards. He disappeared down a side street.

Cassie swallowed hard, breathing heavily. "Y-Yeah," she nodded frantically. "It-it's not the first time I've played bumper cars."

Alice visually inspected Cassie for any cuts or visible swelling. "Good. We're lucky that son of a bitch wasn't going too fast," she shuddered and tightened her grip on the wheel as her hands shook. More from anger. Distressing incidents still bothered her. But not that much because the curse's magic healed _mortal_ injuries. But Cassie wasn't invulnerable to death. What if the car had tipped over?

The light turned green. She carefully backtracked to the town square to assess the damage. When she got out of the car, cold air pierced her clothing. Cassie's eyes widened from the sudden decrease in temperature and she hugged her forearms. "Oh, it's freezing! Wasn't it warmer when we left Dunkin' Donuts?" She grabbed her winter jacket from the backseat of the car.

Alice chuckled and looked to the sky. Snow flurries began falling. "Guess who's back?" She announced, forgetting her anger towards the man in the BMW.

Approximately five hundred feet in the air, Sandy sat on his dream cloud. He waved his hand and released one last jet of sand. Satisfied with his work, he brushed dream sand off his hands. He turned and saw Jack floating towards him. Sandy images of a question mark, a sled, and the country of Russia appeared successively over his head. Jack talked to Sandy for a short time and looked down, catching Alice and Cassie's eyes.

Jack drifted down like a snowflake to meet them, his staff resting on his shoulder blades. Sandy glided smoothly to the ground on his dream cloud. The sandman was a short, stout man with amber eyes and tiny legs. His evening robe and spiky hair were made of honey-colored sand. He looked from Alice to Cassie and then to Jack. Images of a human eye, an arrow pointing to himself and Jack, and another question mark appeared above his head consecutively.

Alice army saluted Sandy. His face beamed in fascination. Out of courtesy, he saluted her in return with a tip of his sandy hat.

"You guys okay?" Jack asked, referring to the minor accident.

"A little shaken up"–Alice brushed a strand of hair from her temple, nodding her head continuously as she racked her brain for something else to say–"but yeah, we're okay."

Cassie toddled uncertainly to her side. "Oh…Um," she collected herself and laughed nervously. "Jack, Sandy… This is Cassie Blake."

Sandy smiled, showing his dimples and waved. Cassie smiled and waved back, feebly. Then she turned to acknowledge Jack.

"Hey Cassie," he said, tilting his chin to greet her.

Alice smiled, feeling a sense of pride that she'd taken the necessary steps to introduce Jack to Cassie. It meant the limited time with others that she had mattered less than it did four months unavoidablegoodbyes wouldn't gnaw the forefront of her mind. She'd cherish the time she'd have with Jack. And her grandparents. And the Circle.

Cassie opened her mouth to speak. But her breath hitched and she sneezed loudly in Jack's direction. Instinctively, he jumped back and found himself on the opposite side of the road. He patted his hoodie madly in an attempt to remove any snotty projectiles.

Alice laughed quietly, but Sandy doubled over in silent laughter, clutching his stomach.

Jack scowled. "Shut up, Sandy!" Just because Guardians can't get sick didn't mean he wanted people sneezing on him! But in all fairness to Cassie, his presence brought the temperature down, depending on the season. "_Gesundheit_!" He called to Cassie. He moved smoothly, his feet not touching the ground, to Alice's side.

Cassie's nose twitched and Jack backed away. She covered her mouth and sneezed again. "Sorry," Jack backed away. "All I can do is keep you cold."

Cassie took out a tissue from her coat pocket and blew her nose. "S'not your fault."

Alice stood so close to Jack, her shoulder almost touching his. The chill emanating from his body didn't seem to bother her. "Aren'tcha cold? It feels like standing in front of an opened door in the frozen food section."

"I feel fine, actually."_Comfortable, in fact. It feels like I'm in the air conditioning when it's hot and humid outside._

Jack looked puzzled by Alice's nonchalance. _Why is that such a shocker?_ _The cold doesn't bother everyone._ She thought, genuinely yet his gaze held a subtle intensity she didn't understand.

She averted her gaze to inspect her car. The damage was worse than she had hoped. Excluding the light bulb, the tail light had been shattered. There was a crease-type dent along the bumper to the fender. Here, the paint had been scratched off.

"Is it just me or is this car lopsided on the right?" Cassie walked around to the front fender. "Yep, we've got a flatter than a flounder tire."

"Grrrreat!" Alice drawled sarcastically. "I can jumpstart a car. But I can't do the simple task of changing a tire."

"That's okay, I can. Where's the spare?" Cassie's eyes shifted to the trunk.

"This is gonna sound strange," Alice admitted. "But a month ago, I saw a family of eight stranded on the highway with two flat tires."

"And you gave them your spare?" Cassie presumed.

"I didn't need it anyway," Alice said uncomfortably. "I'm a member of AAA. And even if I weren't, I still would have stopped to call roadside assistance for them." In spite of her preference for an inconspicuous life, she could_ not_ ignore the world's adversities. Abiding by her rules on relationships, she wished to remain anonymous for her good deeds.

She scrolled through her phone's contacts and tapped on the touch screen. "I'm gonna call AAA." She described the problem and gave her location to the customer service representative. After she hung up, she blew air out her nostrils. "They'll be here anywhere from fifteen to ninety minutes."

Cassie did a double take. "Seriously? Is there any way you can you fix the tire with magic?"

"I can't repair an object if I don't have_ all_ the parts. If a flat tire needs replacing, it's been punctured. The pieces are impossible to find."

Cassie sigh of resignation became a yawn. "I'll wait in the car."

Alice tossed her the keys as she opened the passenger door. "Turn on the furnace if you get cold." Pressing her phone to her forehead, she sighed deeply, "How did the tire flatten? I check the air regularly."

"When that jerk knocked you against the curb, the impact must have blown a hole in the tire," Jack glowered.

Alice sat down on a park bench, crossing her arms and legs. "If I ever stumble upon his car, I'll magically fill it with so many Styrofoam peanuts, it'll take days him to clean," she winked mischievously.

Jack smirked impishly. "Or I could freeze his windshield wipers. Frost his windows and write–"

Alice and Jack chatted back and forth, improvising harmless pranks. Cassie listened with interest. These two were more original than the average senior was on Senior Prank Day.

Sandy sat in the car with Cassie. He had free time because the west coasts of North America were his last rounds. To his surprise and delight, Cassie was an excellent charades player and they were able to carry on a conversation.

Sandy conjured an image of a conference table and a planet for Cassie. "Yeah, looks like Alice and Jack met someone from their own planet." She fidgeted in her seat. She drank too much this evening.

"Hey guys!" Cassie waved her hand as she got out of the car. "Guys!" Alice and Jack didn't respond. They converse animatedly, laughing and smiling enthusiastically. _They're totally lost in each other._

Sandy patted her forearm and pointed to her with his index finger and then to himself with his thumb. Cassie caught on and cupped her hands shouting, "HEY GUYS!" Simultaneously, Sandy put his pinky fingers in his mouth, blowing sand out of his hair that formed a musical note, which tinkled loudly.

Alice and Jack fell silent and turned in the noise's direction. Sandy gritted his teeth. He pointed to a conversation bubble above his head and then to Cassie. Alice flushed with embarrassment.

"Hey guys, I need to use the restroom. So I'm gonna head on over to Exxon."

A sisterly concern washed over Alice. _What if the man in the BMW comes back? What if he kidnaps her?_

Bit by bit, Cassie inched away from the town square, waiting for her approval before taking off. Sandy stayed close to her side. With the Guardian of Night tagging along, she'd be safe. Regardless, Cassie traveled from Burgess to Chance Harbor by herself with no trouble along the way. She'd trust her not to let the man abduct her. And besides, she wasn't going far. "All right. But please be careful."

"I will, don't worry."

"Before you go, will you do me a favor? If you see that guy in the BMW, kick his ass, won't ya... Both of ya?"

Sandy smirked confidently.

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